Genome-wide meta-analysis points to CTC1 and ZNF676 as genes regulating telomere homeostasis in humans. Hum Mol Genet 2012 Dec 15;21(24):5385-94
Date
09/25/2012Pubmed ID
23001564Pubmed Central ID
PMC3510758DOI
10.1093/hmg/dds382Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84870333736 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 181 CitationsAbstract
Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is associated with a number of common age-related diseases and is a heritable trait. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWASs) identified two loci on chromosomes 3q26.2 (TERC) and 10q24.33 (OBFC1) that are associated with the inter-individual LTL variation. We performed a meta-analysis of 9190 individuals from six independent GWAS and validated our findings in 2226 individuals from four additional studies. We confirmed previously reported associations with OBFC1 (rs9419958 P = 9.1 × 10(-11)) and with the telomerase RNA component TERC (rs1317082, P = 1.1 × 10(-8)). We also identified two novel genomic regions associated with LTL variation that map near a conserved telomere maintenance complex component 1 (CTC1; rs3027234, P = 3.6 × 10(-8)) on chromosome17p13.1 and zinc finger protein 676 (ZNF676; rs412658, P = 3.3 × 10(-8)) on 19p12. The minor allele of rs3027234 was associated with both shorter LTL and lower expression of CTC1. Our findings are consistent with the recent observations that point mutations in CTC1 cause short telomeres in both Arabidopsis and humans affected by a rare Mendelian syndrome. Overall, our results provide novel insights into the genetic architecture of inter-individual LTL variation in the general population.
Author List
Mangino M, Hwang SJ, Spector TD, Hunt SC, Kimura M, Fitzpatrick AL, Christiansen L, Petersen I, Elbers CC, Harris T, Chen W, Srinivasan SR, Kark JD, Benetos A, El Shamieh S, Visvikis-Siest S, Christensen K, Berenson GS, Valdes AM, Viñuela A, Garcia M, Arnett DK, Broeckel U, Province MA, Pankow JS, Kammerer C, Liu Y, Nalls M, Tishkoff S, Thomas F, Ziv E, Psaty BM, Bis JC, Rotter JI, Taylor KD, Smith E, Schork NJ, Levy D, Aviv AAuthor
Ulrich Broeckel MD Chief, Center Associate Director, Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Genome-Wide Association StudyHumans
Kruppel-Like Transcription Factors
Telomere
Telomere Homeostasis
Telomere-Binding Proteins