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Genome-wide QTL mapping across three tissues highlights several Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease loci potentially acting via DNA methylation.

Olena Ohlei, Yasmine Sommerer, Valerija Dobricic +20 more · 2023 · medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory · added 2026-04-24

DNA methylation (DNAm) is an epigenetic mark with essential roles in disease development and predisposition. Here, we created genome-wide maps of methylation quantitative trait loci (meQTL) in three peripheral tissues and used Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses to assess the potential causal relationships between DNAm and risk for two common neurodegenerative disorders, i.e. Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). Genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; ~5.5M sites) and DNAm (~850K CpG sites) data were generated from whole blood (n=1,058), buccal (n=1,527) and saliva (n=837) specimens. We identified between 11 and 15 million genome-wide significant (p<10 Show less

📄 PDF DOI: 10.1101/2023.12.22.23300365

KANSL1

Genetic contributions to variation in general cognitive function: a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in the CHARGE consortium (N=53949).

G Davies, N Armstrong, J C Bis +126 more · 2015 · Molecular psychiatry · Nature · added 2026-04-24

G Davies, N Armstrong, J C Bis, J Bressler, V Chouraki, S Giddaluru, E Hofer, C A Ibrahim-Verbaas, M Kirin, J Lahti, S J van der Lee, S Le Hellard, T Liu, R E Marioni, C Oldmeadow, I Postmus, A V Smith, J A Smith, A Thalamuthu, R Thomson, V Vitart, J Wang, L Yu, L Zgaga, W Zhao, R Boxall, S E Harris, W D Hill, D C Liewald, M Luciano, H Adams, D Ames, N Amin, P Amouyel, A A Assareh, R Au, J T Becker, A Beiser, C Berr, L Bertram, E Boerwinkle, B M Buckley, H Campbell, J Corley, P L De Jager, C Dufouil, J G Eriksson, T Espeseth, J D Faul, I Ford, Generation Scotland, R F Gottesman, M E Griswold, V Gudnason, T B Harris, G Heiss, A Hofman, E G Holliday, J Huffman, S L R Kardia, N Kochan, D S Knopman, J B Kwok, J-C Lambert, T Lee, G Li, S-C Li, M Loitfelder, O L Lopez, A J Lundervold, A Lundqvist, K A Mather, S S Mirza, L Nyberg, B A Oostra, A Palotie, G Papenberg, A Pattie, K Petrovic, O Polasek, B M Psaty, P Redmond, S Reppermund, J I Rotter, H Schmidt, M Schuur, P W Schofield, R J Scott, V M Steen, D J Stott, J C van Swieten, K D Taylor, J Trollor, S Trompet, A G Uitterlinden, G Weinstein, E Widen, B G Windham, J W Jukema, A F Wright, M J Wright, Q Yang, H Amieva, J R Attia, D A Bennett, H Brodaty, A J M de Craen, C Hayward, M A Ikram, U Lindenberger, L-G Nilsson, D J Porteous, K Räikkönen, I Reinvang, I Rudan, P S Sachdev, R Schmidt, P R Schofield, V Srikanth, J M Starr, S T Turner, D R Weir, J F Wilson, C van Duijn, L Launer, A L Fitzpatrick, S Seshadri, T H Mosley, I J Deary Show less

General cognitive function is substantially heritable across the human life course from adolescence to old age. We investigated the genetic contribution to variation in this important, health- and well-being-related trait in middle-aged and older adults. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of 31 cohorts (N=53,949) in which the participants had undertaken multiple, diverse cognitive tests. A general cognitive function phenotype was tested for, and created in each cohort by principal component analysis. We report 13 genome-wide significant single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations in three genomic regions, 6q16.1, 14q12 and 19q13.32 (best SNP and closest gene, respectively: rs10457441, P=3.93 × 10(-9), MIR2113; rs17522122, P=2.55 × 10(-8), AKAP6; rs10119, P=5.67 × 10(-9), APOE/TOMM40). We report one gene-based significant association with the HMGN1 gene located on chromosome 21 (P=1 × 10(-6)). These genes have previously been associated with neuropsychiatric phenotypes. Meta-analysis results are consistent with a polygenic model of inheritance. To estimate SNP-based heritability, the genome-wide complex trait analysis procedure was applied to two large cohorts, the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (N=6617) and the Health and Retirement Study (N=5976). The proportion of phenotypic variation accounted for by all genotyped common SNPs was 29% (s.e.=5%) and 28% (s.e.=7%), respectively. Using polygenic prediction analysis, ~1.2% of the variance in general cognitive function was predicted in the Generation Scotland cohort (N=5487; P=1.5 × 10(-17)). In hypothesis-driven tests, there was significant association between general cognitive function and four genes previously associated with Alzheimer's disease: TOMM40, APOE, ABCG1 and MEF2C. Show less

📄 PDF DOI: 10.1038/mp.2014.188

AKAP6

👤 U Lindenberger

Genome-wide QTL mapping across three tissues highlights several Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease loci potentially acting via DNA methylation.

Genetic contributions to variation in general cognitive function: a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in the CHARGE consortium (N=53949).