Cell Genomics (Jan 2022)
Genetic determinants of telomere length from 109,122 ancestrally diverse whole-genome sequences in TOPMed
- Margaret A. Taub,
- Matthew P. Conomos,
- Rebecca Keener,
- Kruthika R. Iyer,
- Joshua S. Weinstock,
- Lisa R. Yanek,
- John Lane,
- Tyne W. Miller-Fleming,
- Jennifer A. Brody,
- Laura M. Raffield,
- Caitlin P. McHugh,
- Deepti Jain,
- Stephanie M. Gogarten,
- Cecelia A. Laurie,
- Ali Keramati,
- Marios Arvanitis,
- Albert V. Smith,
- Benjamin Heavner,
- Lucas Barwick,
- Lewis C. Becker,
- Joshua C. Bis,
- John Blangero,
- Eugene R. Bleecker,
- Esteban G. Burchard,
- Juan C. Celedón,
- Yen Pei C. Chang,
- Brian Custer,
- Dawood Darbar,
- Lisa de las Fuentes,
- Dawn L. DeMeo,
- Barry I. Freedman,
- Melanie E. Garrett,
- Mark T. Gladwin,
- Susan R. Heckbert,
- Bertha A. Hidalgo,
- Marguerite R. Irvin,
- Talat Islam,
- W. Craig Johnson,
- Stefan Kaab,
- Lenore Launer,
- Jiwon Lee,
- Simin Liu,
- Arden Moscati,
- Kari E. North,
- Patricia A. Peyser,
- Nicholas Rafaels,
- Christine Seidman,
- Daniel E. Weeks,
- Fayun Wen,
- Marsha M. Wheeler,
- L. Keoki Williams,
- Ivana V. Yang,
- Wei Zhao,
- Stella Aslibekyan,
- Paul L. Auer,
- Donald W. Bowden,
- Brian E. Cade,
- Zhanghua Chen,
- Michael H. Cho,
- L. Adrienne Cupples,
- Joanne E. Curran,
- Michelle Daya,
- Ranjan Deka,
- Celeste Eng,
- Tasha E. Fingerlin,
- Xiuqing Guo,
- Lifang Hou,
- Shih-Jen Hwang,
- Jill M. Johnsen,
- Eimear E. Kenny,
- Albert M. Levin,
- Chunyu Liu,
- Ryan L. Minster,
- Take Naseri,
- Mehdi Nouraie,
- Muagututi‘a Sefuiva Reupena,
- Ester C. Sabino,
- Jennifer A. Smith,
- Nicholas L. Smith,
- Jessica Lasky-Su,
- James G. Taylor, VI,
- Marilyn J. Telen,
- Hemant K. Tiwari,
- Russell P. Tracy,
- Marquitta J. White,
- Yingze Zhang,
- Kerri L. Wiggins,
- Scott T. Weiss,
- Ramachandran S. Vasan,
- Kent D. Taylor,
- Moritz F. Sinner,
- Edwin K. Silverman,
- M. Benjamin Shoemaker,
- Wayne H.-H. Sheu,
- Frank Sciurba,
- David A. Schwartz,
- Jerome I. Rotter,
- Daniel Roden,
- Susan Redline,
- Benjamin A. Raby,
- Bruce M. Psaty,
- Juan M. Peralta,
- Nicholette D. Palmer,
- Sergei Nekhai,
- Courtney G. Montgomery,
- Braxton D. Mitchell,
- Deborah A. Meyers,
- Stephen T. McGarvey,
- Angel C.Y. Mak,
- Ruth J.F. Loos,
- Rajesh Kumar,
- Charles Kooperberg,
- Barbara A. Konkle,
- Shannon Kelly,
- Sharon L.R. Kardia,
- Robert Kaplan,
- Jiang He,
- Hongsheng Gui,
- Frank D. Gilliland,
- Bruce D. Gelb,
- Myriam Fornage,
- Patrick T. Ellinor,
- Mariza de Andrade,
- Adolfo Correa,
- Yii-Der Ida Chen,
- Eric Boerwinkle,
- Kathleen C. Barnes,
- Allison E. Ashley-Koch,
- Donna K. Arnett,
- Christine Albert,
- Cathy C. Laurie,
- Goncalo Abecasis,
- Deborah A. Nickerson,
- James G. Wilson,
- Stephen S. Rich,
- Daniel Levy,
- Ingo Ruczinski,
- Abraham Aviv,
- Thomas W. Blackwell,
- Timothy Thornton,
- Jeff O’Connell,
- Nancy J. Cox,
- James A. Perry,
- Mary Armanios,
- Alexis Battle,
- Nathan Pankratz,
- Alexander P. Reiner,
- Rasika A. Mathias
Affiliations
- Margaret A. Taub
- Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Matthew P. Conomos
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Rebecca Keener
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Kruthika R. Iyer
- Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Joshua S. Weinstock
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Center for Statistical Genetics, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Lisa R. Yanek
- GeneSTAR Research Program, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- John Lane
- Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Tyne W. Miller-Fleming
- Department of Medicine, Division of Genetic Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Jennifer A. Brody
- Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Laura M. Raffield
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
- Caitlin P. McHugh
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Deepti Jain
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Stephanie M. Gogarten
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Cecelia A. Laurie
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Ali Keramati
- Department of Cardiology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Marios Arvanitis
- Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Albert V. Smith
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Center for Statistical Genetics, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Benjamin Heavner
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Lucas Barwick
- LTRC Data Coordinating Center, The Emmes Company, LLC, Rockville, MD, USA
- Lewis C. Becker
- GeneSTAR Research Program, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Joshua C. Bis
- Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- John Blangero
- Department of Human Genetics and South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, Brownsville, TX, USA
- Eugene R. Bleecker
- Department of Medicine, Division of Genetics, Genomics, and Precision Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Division of Pharmacogenomics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
- Esteban G. Burchard
- Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Juan C. Celedón
- Division of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Yen Pei C. Chang
- Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Brian Custer
- Vitalant Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA; Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Dawood Darbar
- Division of Cardiology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Lisa de las Fuentes
- Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Dawn L. DeMeo
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Barry I. Freedman
- Department of Internal Medicine, Section on Nephrology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
- Melanie E. Garrett
- Department of Medicine and Duke Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA; Duke Molecular Physiology Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
- Mark T. Gladwin
- Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Susan R. Heckbert
- Cardiovascular Health Research Unit and Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA
- Bertha A. Hidalgo
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
- Marguerite R. Irvin
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
- Talat Islam
- Division of Environmental Health, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- W. Craig Johnson
- Department of Biostatistics, Collaborative Health Studies Coordinating Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Stefan Kaab
- Department of Medicine I, University Hospital Munich, Ludwig-Maximilian’s University, Munich, Germany; German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), partner site Munich Heart Alliance, Munich, Germany
- Lenore Launer
- Laboratory of Epidemiology and Population Science, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
- Jiwon Lee
- Department of Medicine, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Simin Liu
- Department of Epidemiology and Brown Center for Global Cardiometabolic Health, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
- Arden Moscati
- The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Kari E. North
- Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
- Patricia A. Peyser
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Nicholas Rafaels
- Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA
- Christine Seidman
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Daniel E. Weeks
- Department of Human Genetics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Department of Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Fayun Wen
- Center for Sickle Cell Disease and Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA
- Marsha M. Wheeler
- Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- L. Keoki Williams
- Center for Individualized and Genomic Medicine Research (CIGMA), Department of Internal Medicine, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI, USA
- Ivana V. Yang
- Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA
- Wei Zhao
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Stella Aslibekyan
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
- Paul L. Auer
- Zilber School of Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA
- Donald W. Bowden
- Department of Biochemistry, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
- Brian E. Cade
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Zhanghua Chen
- Division of Environmental Health, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Michael H. Cho
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- L. Adrienne Cupples
- Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Boston University’s Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA
- Joanne E. Curran
- Department of Human Genetics and South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, Brownsville, TX, USA
- Michelle Daya
- Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA
- Ranjan Deka
- Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
- Celeste Eng
- Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Tasha E. Fingerlin
- Center for Genes, Environment, and Health, National Jewish Health, Denver, CO, USA; Department of Biostatistics and Informatics, University of Colorado, Denver, Aurora, CO, USA
- Xiuqing Guo
- The Institute for Translational Genomics and Population Sciences, Department of Pediatrics, The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA
- Lifang Hou
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
- Shih-Jen Hwang
- Population Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
- Jill M. Johnsen
- Bloodworks Northwest Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA; University of Washington, Department of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA
- Eimear E. Kenny
- The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA; Center for Genomic Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Albert M. Levin
- Department of Public Health Sciences, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI, USA
- Chunyu Liu
- The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Boston University’s Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA; The Population Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
- Ryan L. Minster
- Department of Human Genetics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Take Naseri
- Ministry of Health, Government of Samoa, Apia, Samoa; Department of Epidemiology & International Health Institute, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
- Mehdi Nouraie
- Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Muagututi‘a Sefuiva Reupena
- Lutia i Puava ae Mapu i Fagalele, Apia, Samoa
- Ester C. Sabino
- Instituto de Medicina Tropical da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
- Jennifer A. Smith
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Nicholas L. Smith
- Cardiovascular Health Research Unit and Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA
- Jessica Lasky-Su
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- James G. Taylor, VI
- Center for Sickle Cell Disease and Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA
- Marilyn J. Telen
- Department of Medicine and Duke Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA; Duke Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
- Hemant K. Tiwari
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
- Russell P. Tracy
- Departments of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Biochemistry, Larrner College of Medicine, University of Vermont, Colchester, VT, USA
- Marquitta J. White
- Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Yingze Zhang
- Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Kerri L. Wiggins
- Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Scott T. Weiss
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Ramachandran S. Vasan
- The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Boston University’s Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Kent D. Taylor
- The Institute for Translational Genomics and Population Sciences, Department of Pediatrics, The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA
- Moritz F. Sinner
- Department of Medicine I, University Hospital Munich, Ludwig-Maximilian’s University, Munich, Germany; German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), partner site Munich Heart Alliance, Munich, Germany
- Edwin K. Silverman
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- M. Benjamin Shoemaker
- Departments of Medicine, Pharmacology, and Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Wayne H.-H. Sheu
- Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
- Frank Sciurba
- Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- David A. Schwartz
- Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA
- Jerome I. Rotter
- Institute for Translational Genomics and Population Sciences, Departments of Pediatrics and Medicine, The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA
- Daniel Roden
- Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA
- Susan Redline
- Division of Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Benjamin A. Raby
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Bruce M. Psaty
- Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, Departments of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Juan M. Peralta
- Department of Human Genetics and South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, Brownsville, TX, USA
- Nicholette D. Palmer
- Department of Biochemistry, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
- Sergei Nekhai
- Center for Sickle Cell Disease and Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA
- Courtney G. Montgomery
- Genes and Human Disease Research Program, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City, OK, USA
- Braxton D. Mitchell
- Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Geriatrics Research and Education Clinical Center, Baltimore Veterans Administration Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Deborah A. Meyers
- Department of Medicine, Division of Genetics, Genomics, and Precision Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Division of Pharmacogenomics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
- Stephen T. McGarvey
- Department of Epidemiology & International Health Institute, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
- Angel C.Y. Mak
- Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Ruth J.F. Loos
- The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA; The Mindich Child Health and Development Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Rajesh Kumar
- Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, The Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Department of Pediatrics, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
- Charles Kooperberg
- Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA
- Barbara A. Konkle
- Bloodworks Northwest Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA; University of Washington, Department of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA
- Shannon Kelly
- Vitalant Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA; UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, Oakland, CA, USA
- Sharon L.R. Kardia
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Robert Kaplan
- Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA
- Jiang He
- Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA
- Hongsheng Gui
- Center for Individualized and Genomic Medicine Research (CIGMA), Department of Internal Medicine, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI, USA
- Frank D. Gilliland
- Division of Environmental Health, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Bruce D. Gelb
- Mindich Child Health and Development Institute, Departments of Pediatrics and Genetics & Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Myriam Fornage
- Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA; Human Genetics Center, School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA
- Patrick T. Ellinor
- Cardiology Division, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Mariza de Andrade
- Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
- Adolfo Correa
- Jackson Heart Study and Departments of Medicine and Population Health Science, Jackson, MS, USA
- Yii-Der Ida Chen
- The Institute for Translational Genomics and Population Sciences, Department of Pediatrics, The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA
- Eric Boerwinkle
- Human Genetics Center, Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA
- Kathleen C. Barnes
- Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA
- Allison E. Ashley-Koch
- Department of Medicine and Duke Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA; Duke Molecular Physiology Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
- Donna K. Arnett
- College of Public Health, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
- Christine Albert
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Cathy C. Laurie
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Goncalo Abecasis
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Tarrytown, NY, USA
- Deborah A. Nickerson
- Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- James G. Wilson
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MI, USA
- Stephen S. Rich
- Center for Public Health Genomics, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
- Daniel Levy
- The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Boston University’s Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA; The Population Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
- Ingo Ruczinski
- Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Abraham Aviv
- Center of Human Development and Aging, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA
- Thomas W. Blackwell
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Center for Statistical Genetics, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Timothy Thornton
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Jeff O’Connell
- Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Program for Personalized and Genomic Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Nancy J. Cox
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute and Division of Genetic Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- James A. Perry
- Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Mary Armanios
- Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Alexis Battle
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, Baltimore, MD, USA; Departments of Computer Science and Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Nathan Pankratz
- Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Alexander P. Reiner
- Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA; Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Rasika A. Mathias
- GeneSTAR Research Program, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Corresponding author
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 2,
no. 1
p. 100084
Abstract
Summary: Genetic studies on telomere length are important for understanding age-related diseases. Prior GWASs for leukocyte TL have been limited to European and Asian populations. Here, we report the first sequencing-based association study for TL across ancestrally diverse individuals (European, African, Asian, and Hispanic/Latino) from the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. We used whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of whole blood for variant genotype calling and the bioinformatic estimation of telomere length in n = 109,122 individuals. We identified 59 sentinel variants (p < 5 × 10−9) in 36 loci associated with telomere length, including 20 newly associated loci (13 were replicated in external datasets). There was little evidence of effect size heterogeneity across populations. Fine-mapping at OBFC1 indicated that the independent signals colocalized with cell-type-specific eQTLs for OBFC1 (STN1). Using a multi-variant gene-based approach, we identified two genes newly implicated in telomere length, DCLRE1B (SNM1B) and PARN. In PheWAS, we demonstrated that our TL polygenic trait scores (PTSs) were associated with an increased risk of cancer-related phenotypes.
