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A genome-wide association study reveals variants in ARL15 that influence adiponectin levels

  • J. Brent Richards
  • , Dawn Waterworth
  • , Stephen O'Rahilly
  • , Marie France Hivert
  • , Ruth J.F. Loos
  • , John R.B. Perry
  • , Toshiko Tanaka
  • , Nicholas John Timpson
  • , Robert K. Semple
  • , Nicole Soranzo
  • , Kijoung Song
  • , Nuno Rocha
  • , Elin Grundberg
  • , Josée Dupuis
  • , Jose C. Florez
  • , Claudia Langenberg
  • , Inga Prokopenko
  • , Richa Saxena
  • , Robert Sladek
  • , Yurii Aulchenko
  • David Evans, Gerard Waeber, Jeanette Erdmann, Mary Susan Burnett, Naveed Sattar, Joseph Devaney, Christina Willenborg, Aroon Hingorani, Jaquelin C.M. Witteman, Peter Vollenweider, Beate Glaser, Christian Hengstenberg, Luigi Ferrucci, David Melzer, Klaus Stark, John Deanfield, Janina Winogradow, Martina Grassl, Alistair S. Hall, Josephine M. Egan, John R. Thompson, Sally L. Ricketts, Inke R. König, Wibke Reinhard, Scott Grundy, H. Erich Wichmann, Phil Barter, Robert Mahley, Y. Antero Kesaniemi, Daniel J. Rader, Muredach P. Reilly, Stephen E. Epstein, Alexandre F.R. Stewart, Cornelia M. Van Duijn, Heribert Schunkert, Keith Burling, Panos Deloukas, Tomi Pastinen, Nilesh J. Samani, Ruth McPherson, George Davey Smith, Timothy M. Frayling, Nicholas J. Wareham, James B. Meigs, Vincent Mooser, Tim D. Spector
  • Hôpital Général Juif Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital
  • King's College London
  • GlaxoSmithKline
  • University of Cambridge
  • Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Harvard Medical School
  • Addenbrooke's Hospital
  • Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth
  • National Institute on Aging (NIA)
  • MedStar Research Institute, Hyattsville
  • Medical Research Council
  • Wellcome Sanger Institute
  • McGill University and Génome Québec Innovation Centre
  • Boston University
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • University of Oxford Medical Sciences Division
  • University of Oxford
  • Erasmus University Medical Center
  • Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois
  • University of Lübeck
  • Washington Hospital Center
  • University of Glasgow
  • University College London
  • Klinikum der Universität Regensburg und Medizinische Fakultät
  • Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust
  • University of Leeds
  • University of Leicester
  • Strangeways Research Laboratory
  • UT Southwestern Medical Center
  • Helmholtz Zentrum München German Research Center for Environmental Health
  • University of Munich
  • The Heart Research Institute
  • Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease
  • University of Oulu
  • The University of Pennsylvania
  • University of Ottawa Heart Institute
  • University of Leicester

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

152 Scopus citations

Abstract

The adipocyte-derived protein adiponectin is highly heritable and inversely associated with risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and coronary heart disease (CHD). We meta-analyzed 3 genome-wide association studies for circulating adiponectin levels (n = 8,531) and sought validation of the lead single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 5 additional cohorts (n = 6,202). Five SNPs were genome-wide significant in their relationship with adiponectin (P≤5×10-8). We then tested whether these 5 SNPs were associated with risk of T2D and CHD using a Bonferroni-corrected threshold of P≤0.011 to declare statistical significance for these disease associations. SNPs at the adiponectin-encoding ADIPOQ locus demonstrated the strongest associations with adiponectin levels (P-combined = 9.2×10-19 for lead SNP, rs266717, n = 14,733). A novel variant in the ARL15 (ADP-ribosylation factor-like 15) gene was associated with lower circulating levels of adiponectin (rs4311394-G, P-combined = 2.9×10-8, n = 14,733). This same risk allele at ARL15 was also associated with a higher risk of CHD (odds ratio [OR] = 1.12, P = 8.5×10-6, n = 22,421) more nominally, an increased risk of T2D (OR = 1.11, P = 3.2×10-3, n = 10,128), and several metabolic traits. Expression studies in humans indicated that ARL15 is well-expressed in skeletal muscle. These findings identify a novel protein, ARL15, which influences circulating adiponectin levels and may impact upon CHD risk.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere1000768
JournalPLoS Genetics
Volume5
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2009
Externally publishedYes

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

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