Rare variants articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Left-handedness is a common and partly heritable trait. Here, the authors perform a genome-wide screen for rare, protein-altering genetic variants associated with handedness in over 350,000 people, and implicate the tubulin gene TUBB4B.

    • Dick Schijven
    • , Sourena Soheili-Nezhad
    •  & Clyde Francks

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The contribution of rare variants to complex traits has not been well studied. Here, the authors present RARity, a method to assess rare variant heritability without assuming a particular genetic architecture and enabling both gene-level and exome-wide heritability estimation of continuous traits.

    • Nazia Pathan
    • , Wei Q. Deng
    •  & Guillaume Paré

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Whole genome sequencing has enabled new insights into the genetic architecture of complex traits, especially through access to low-frequency and rare variation. This Comment highlights the key contributions from this technology and discusses considerations for its use and future perspectives.

    • Ozvan Bocher
    • , Cristen J. Willer
    •  & Eleftheria Zeggini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Previous work has investigated selection in the coding genome, but it is not as well characterized in the non-coding genome. By analyzing rare variants in 70k genome sequences from gnomAD, the authors detect very strong purifying selection ("ultraselection”) across the human genome, finding it in some microRNAs and coding sequences but generally rare in regulatory sequences.

    • Noah Dukler
    • , Mehreen R. Mughal
    •  & Adam Siepel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The impact of germline variants on somatic alterations in cancer remains to be explored in large-scale datasets. Here, the authors study the association of rare germline variants with somatic mutational processes in more than 15,000 tumors, and reveal that damaging variants in newly-identifed genes are prevalent in the population.

    • Mischan Vali-Pour
    • , Solip Park
    •  & Fran Supek

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whole genome sequencing (WGS) data on non-European and admixed individuals remains scarce. Here, the authors analyse WGS data from 1,171 admixed elderly Brazilians from a census cohort, characterising population-specific genetic variation and exploring the clinical utility of this expanded dataset.

    • Michel S. Naslavsky
    • , Marilia O. Scliar
    •  & Mayana Zatz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While the consequences of homozygous loss of function variants have been studied, the effect of missense variants is less understood. Here, the authors identify pathogenic genotypes through an observed deficit of homozygous carriers of missense variants in a population, elucidating previously unexplained recessive disease and miscarriage.

    • Gudny A. Arnadottir
    • , Asmundur Oddsson
    •  & Kari Stefansson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Genetic studies of eczema to date have mostly explored common genetic variation. Here, the authors perform a large meta-analysis for common and rare variants and discover 8 loci associated with eczema. Over 20% of the heritability of the condition is attributable to rare variants.

    • Sarah Grosche
    • , Ingo Marenholz
    •  & Young-Ae Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Prioritising genes as potential drug targets is challenging and often unsuccessful once testing efficacy in humans. Here, the authors propose an approach to identifying drug targets that uses evidence from gain- or loss-of-function mutations associated with bidirectional effects on phenotypes.

    • Karol Estrada
    • , Steven Froelich
    •  & Lon R. Cardon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Population-based association analyses of rare genetic variants with complex traits are limited by the availability of data from sufficiently large cohorts. Here, Cirulli et al. report gene-based collapsing analysis of exomes from 49,960 participants of the UK Biobank and 21,866 participants of the Healthy Nevada Project over a total of 4377 traits.

    • Elizabeth T. Cirulli
    • , Simon White
    •  & Nicole L. Washington

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Healthspan and healthy aging are areas of research with potential socioeconomic impact. Here, the authors present the Medical Genome Reference Bank (MGRB) which consist of over 4,000 individuals aged 70 years and older without a history of the major age-related diseases and report on results from whole-genome sequencing and association analyses.

    • Mark Pinese
    • , Paul Lacaze
    •  & David M. Thomas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rare genetic disorders (RGDs) often exhibit significant clinical variability among affected individuals. Here, Oetjens et al. systematically study the contribution of common genetic variation to variable expressivity of RGDs and find it is frequently influenced by polygenic factors identified in genome-wide association studies of relevant traits.

    • M. T. Oetjens
    • , M. A. Kelly
    •  & D. H. Ledbetter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thousands of genetic loci are known to associate with human height, but these are mainly based on studies in European ancestry populations. Here, Akiyama et al. construct a genotype reference panel for the Japanese population followed by GWAS and report 573 height associated variants in 191,787 Japanese.

    • Masato Akiyama
    • , Kazuyoshi Ishigaki
    •  & Yoichiro Kamatani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Low frequency coding single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) are predicted to disproportionately affect protein function. Here, the authors evaluate 2,009 missense SNVs across 2,185 protein-protein interactions using yeast two-hybrid and protein complementation assays and find that disruptive SNVs often occur in disease-associated genes.

    • Robert Fragoza
    • , Jishnu Das
    •  & Haiyuan Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While many pleiotropic genetic loci have been identified, how they contribute to phenotypes across traits and diseases is unclear. Here, the authors propose decomposition of genetic associations (DeGAs), which uses singular value decomposition, to characterize the underlying latent structure of genetic associations of 2,138 phenotypes.

    • Yosuke Tanigawa
    • , Jiehan Li
    •  & Manuel A. Rivas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rare genetic variants can contribute to complex traits but this contribution is not well understood. Here, the authors analyse deep whole genome sequencing data across 1457 individuals from an isolated Greek population and find association of rare variant burdens with cardiometabolic traits.

    • Arthur Gilly
    • , Daniel Suveges
    •  & Eleftheria Zeggini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mutations in genes encoding NAPDH oxidase subunits are known to be causative for the primary immunodeficiency chronic granulomatous disease (CGD). Here, the authors identify CYBC1 mutations in patients with CGD and show that CYBC1 is important for formation of the NADPH complex and respiratory burst.

    • Gudny A. Arnadottir
    • , Gudmundur L. Norddahl
    •  & Kari Stefansson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Common genetic variants associated with plasma lipids have been extensively studied for a better understanding of common diseases. Here, the authors use whole-genome sequencing of 16,324 individuals to analyze rare variant associations and to determine their monogenic and polygenic contribution to lipid traits.

    • Pradeep Natarajan
    • , Gina M. Peloso
    •  & Sebastian Zoellner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare lung disorder characterised by narrowing and obliteration of small pulmonary arteries ultimately leading to right heart failure. Here, the authors sequence whole genomes of over 1000 PAH patients and identify likely causal variants in GDF2, ATP13A3, AQP1 and SOX17.

    • Stefan Gräf
    • , Matthias Haimel
    •  & Nicholas W. Morrell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Isolated populations can provide useful information on low-frequency variants for dissecting genetic architecture of complex traits. Here, Zeggini and colleagues show enrichment of rare and low-frequency variants and 8 novel low-frequency variant signals for cardiometabolic traits in two Greek isolated populations

    • Lorraine Southam
    • , Arthur Gilly
    •  & Eleftheria Zeggini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Detection ofde novo, low frequency mutations is important for characterising heterogeneous cell populations, such as those found in cancer cell populations. Here the authors present o2n-seq, an ultrasensitive method with highly efficient data usage for detection of rare mutations.

    • Kaile Wang
    • , Shujuan Lai
    •  & Jue Ruan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cryptic genetic variants may not individually show discernible phenotypic effects, but collectively, these polymorphisms can lead to unexpected, genetically complex traits that might be relevant to evolution and disease. Here, the authors use large yeast populations to comprehensively dissect the genetic bases of 17 independent occurrences of a phenotype that arises due to combinations of epistatically interacting cryptic variants.

    • Matthew B. Taylor
    • , Joann Phan
    •  & Ian M. Ehrenreich

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization establishes a biobank with detailed patient health care and genome information. Here the authors analyse whole-genome sequences of 1,070 Japanese individuals, allowing them to catalogue 21 million single-nucleotide variants including 12 million novel ones.

    • Masao Nagasaki
    • , Jun Yasuda
    •  & Masayuki Yamamoto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Previous studies have linked over 100 genomic loci to age-at-menarche but that work was restricted to common autosomal variation. Here, Lunetta et al. identify associations with rare protein-coding and X-linked variants, implicating new mechanisms that regulate puberty timing.

    • Kathryn L. Lunetta
    • , Felix R. Day
    •  & John R. B. Perry

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Schizophrenia is a complex disorder with high heritability but poorly understood genetics. Here Olde Loohuis et al.compare schizophrenia patients to unaffected individuals and identify an increased individual burden of rare deleterious mutations in patients.

    • Loes M. Olde Loohuis
    • , Jacob A. S. Vorstman
    •  & Roel A. Ophoff

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Levels of circulating thyrotropin and free thyroxine reflect thyroid function, however, their genetic underpinnings remain poorly understood. Taylor et al. take advantage of whole-genome sequence data from cohorts within the UK10K project to identify novel variants associated with these traits.

    • Peter N. Taylor
    • , Eleonora Porcu
    •  & Pingbo Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Common variants account for only a small amount of the heritable risk for developing asthma. Using a meta-analysis approach, Igartua et al. identify one low-frequency missense mutation and two genes with functional variants that are associated with asthma, but only in specific ethnic groups.

    • Catherine Igartua
    • , Rachel A. Myers
    •  & Carole Ober

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Population-based genome sequencing provides an increasingly rich resource for the identification of low-frequency, large effect variants associated with clinically important phenotypes. Timpson et al. use UK10K data to identify a variant of the APOC3gene strongly associated with plasma triglyceride levels.

    • Nicholas J. Timpson
    • , Klaudia Walter
    •  & Hou-Feng Zheng

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