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Common variants in the GDF5-UQCC region are associated with variation in human height

Nature Genetics volume 40, pages 198–203 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Identifying genetic variants that influence human height will advance our understanding of skeletal growth and development. Several rare genetic variants have been convincingly and reproducibly associated with height in mendelian syndromes, and common variants in the transcription factor gene HMGA2 are associated with variation in height in the general population1. Here we report genome-wide association analyses, using genotyped and imputed markers, of 6,669 individuals from Finland and Sardinia, and follow-up analyses in an additional 28,801 individuals. We show that common variants in the osteoarthritis-associated locus2 GDF5-UQCC contribute to variation in height with an estimated additive effect of 0.44 cm (overall P < 10−15). Our results indicate that there may be a link between the genetic basis of height and osteoarthritis, potentially mediated through alterations in bone growth and development.

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Figure 1: Evidence of association with height and linkage disequilibrium around GDF5 and UQCC.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the individuals who participated in this study; Y. Li for computational analysis; K. Gaulton, A. Swift, M. Erdos and N. Narisu for FUSION genotyping and technical expertise; investigators at the Center for Inherited Disease Research for FUSION GWAS genotyping; staff and participants of the ARIC study for contributions; and the Amish Research Clinic Staff for study subject recruitment and characterization. The SardiNIA team thanks Monsignore Piseddu (Bishop of Ogliastra), the mayors and citizens of the four Sardinian towns (Lanusei, Ilbono, Arzana and Elini), and the head of the Public Health Unit ASL4 for cooperation; A. Maschio, F. Busonero, A. Mulas, N. Sestu and M. Grazia Piras for genotyping and technical expertise; and all of the physicians, nurses and recruitment personnel of the ProgeNIA group in Lanusei. This research was supported (in part) by the intramural Research Program of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute on Aging (contracts NO1-AG-1-2109 to the SardiNIA ('Progenia') team and 263-MA-410953 to the University of Michigan (G.R.A.)); NIH grants DK072193 (K.L.M.), HL084729 (G.R.A.), HG002651 (G.R.A.), DK062370 (M.B.), DK54361 (A.R.S.), HL72515 (A.R.S.), AG18728 (A.R.S.) and AR046838 (A.R.S.); the National Human Genome Research Institute (intramural project number 1 Z01 HG000024 (F.S.C.)); the American Diabetes Association, including a postdoctoral fellowship award (C.J.W.); and March of Dimes (research grant 6-FY04-61 (J.N.H.)). K.L.M. and G.R.A are Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences. The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study is carried out as a collaborative study supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (contracts N01-HC-55015, N01-HC-55016, N01-HC-55018, N01-HC-55019, N01-HC-55020, N01-HC-55021 and N01-HC-55022). FUSION GWAS genotyping was performed with support from CIDR NIH (contract N01-HG-65403) and the John Hopkins University Genetic Resources Core Facility SNP Center. The whole-genome genotyping and analysis in the Diabetic Genetics Initiative genome scan was supported by Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (to D. Altshuler), with additional support from The Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation/American Diabetes Association Pinnacle Program Project Award (to D. Altshuler, J.N.H. and M.J. Daly). Funding and support were also provided by the University of Maryland General Clinical Research Center (M01 RR 16500), the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Clinical Nutrition Research Unit of Maryland (NIH P30 DK072488), the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Veterans Affairs Medical Center Baltimore Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center. The Caerphilly study was funded by the UK MRC. The Caerphilly study was undertaken by the former MRC Epidemiology Unit in South Wales and was funded by the UK MRC. The data archive is maintained by the Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol. We acknowledge use of genotype data from the British 1958 Birth Cohort DNA collection, funded by the MRC (grant G0000934) and the Wellcome Trust (grant 068545/Z/02).

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Author notes

  1. Serena Sanna and Anne U Jackson: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biostatistics, Center for Statistical Genetics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109, Michigan, USA

    Serena Sanna, Anne U Jackson, Cristen J Willer, Wei-Min Chen, Heather M Stringham, Laura J Scott, Michael Boehnke & Gonçalo R Abecasis

  2. Istituto di Neurogenetica e Neurofarmacologia (INN), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, c/o Cittadella Universitaria di Monserrato, Monserrato, 09042, Cagliari, Italy

    Serena Sanna, Gianluca Usala, Mariano Dei, Sandra Lai, Giuseppe Albai, Laura Crisponi, Silvia Naitza, Manuela Uda & Antonio Cao

  3. Gerontology Research Center, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, 21224, Maryland, USA

    Ramaiah Nagaraja & David Schlessinger

  4. Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, 22908, Virginia, USA

    Wei-Min Chen

  5. Genome Technology Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, 20892, Maryland, USA

    Lori L Bonnycastle, Peter S Chines & Francis S Collins

  6. Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, 21201, Maryland, USA

    Haiqing Shen & Alan R Shuldiner

  7. Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, BS8 2PR, Bristol, UK

    Nicholas Timpson, Yoav Ben-Shlomo, Debbie A Lawlor & George Davey Smith

  8. Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Causal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, BS8 2PR, Bristol, UK

    Nicholas Timpson, Debbie A Lawlor & George Davey Smith

  9. Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Seven Cambridge Center, Cambridge, 02142, Massachusetts, USA

    Guillaume Lettre & Joel N Hirschhorn

  10. Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR), Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, 21224, Maryland, USA

    Kimberly F Doheny & Elizabeth W Pugh

  11. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, London, WC1E 7HT, UK

    Shah Ebrahim

  12. Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 90033, California, USA

    Richard N Bergman & Richard M Watanabe

  13. Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 90089, California, USA

    Richard M Watanabe

  14. Department of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention, Diabetes Unit, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, 00300

    Jaakko Tuomilehto

  15. Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, 00014, Finland

    Jaakko Tuomilehto

  16. Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, 21205, Maryland, USA

    Josef Coresh

  17. Geriatric Research and Education Center, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Baltimore, 21201, Maryland, USA

    Alan R Shuldiner

  18. Human Genetics Center and Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, 77225, Texas, USA

    Eric Boerwinkle

  19. Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 27599, North Carolina, USA

    Karen L Mohlke

Authors
  1. Serena Sanna
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  2. Anne U Jackson
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  14. Mariano Dei
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  22. Shah Ebrahim
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  23. Debbie A Lawlor
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  24. Richard N Bergman
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  26. Manuela Uda
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  35. Antonio Cao
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Contributions

D.S., F.S.C., A.C., M.B., G.R.A. and K.L.M. designed the study; Y.B.-S., S.E., D.A.L., J.T., J.C., J.N.H., A.R.S., D.S., G.D.S., E.B. and A.C. provided material and reagents; R.N., L.L.B., G.U., P.S.C., M.D., S.L., L.C., S.N., K.F.D., E.W.P., R.N.B., R.M.W. and M.U. performed the research; S.S., A.U.J., C.J.W., W.-M.C., H.S., N.T., G.L., H.M.S., L.J.S., G.A., M.B. and G.R.A. analyzed the data; and S.S., A.U.J., C.J.W., A.C., M.B., G.R.A. and K.L.M. wrote the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Gonçalo R Abecasis or Karen L Mohlke.

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Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Tables 1–5, Supplementary Figures 1 and 2 (PDF 2636 kb)

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Sanna, S., Jackson, A., Nagaraja, R. et al. Common variants in the GDF5-UQCC region are associated with variation in human height. Nat Genet 40, 198–203 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.74

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