Genes, Vol. 12, Pages 1637: Generalizability of GWA-Identified Genetic Risk Variants for Metabolic Traits to Populations from the Arabian Peninsula

Genes, Vol. 12, Pages 1637: Generalizability of GWA-Identified Genetic Risk Variants for Metabolic Traits to Populations from the Arabian Peninsula Genes doi: 10.3390/genes12101637 Authors: Prashantha Hebbar Mohamed Abu-Farha Jehad Abubaker Arshad Mohamed Channanath Fahd Al-Mulla Thangavel Alphonse Thanaraj The Arabian Peninsula, located at the nexus of Africa, Europe, and Asia, was implicated in early human migration. The Arab population is characterized by consanguinity and endogamy leading to inbreeding. Global genome-wide association (GWA) studies on metabolic traits under-represent the Arab population. Replicability of GWA-identified association signals in the Arab population has not been satisfactorily explored. It is important to assess how well GWA-identified findings generalize if their clinical interpretations are to benefit the target population. Our recent study from Kuwait, which performed genome-wide imputation and meta-analysis, observed 304 (from 151 genes) of the 4746 GWA-identified metabolic risk variants replicable in the Arab population. A recent large GWA study from Qatar found replication of 30 GWA-identified lipid risk variants. These complementing studies from the Peninsula increase the confidence in generalizing metabolic risk loci to the Arab population. However, both the studies reported a low extent of transferability. In this review, we examine the observed low transferability in the context of differences in environment, genetic...
Source: Genes - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Review Source Type: research