Detection of Pleiotropy through a Phenome-Wide Association Study (PheWAS) of Epidemiologic Data as Part of the Environmental Architecture for Genes Linked to Environment (EAGLE) Study

摘要

We performed a Phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) utilizing diverse genotypic and phenotypic data existing across multiple populations in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and accessed by the Epidemiological Architecture for Genes Linked to Environment (EAGLE) study. We calculated comprehensive tests of association in Genetic NHANES using 80 SNPs and 1,008 phenotypes (grouped into 184 phenotype classes), stratified by race-ethnicity. Genetic NHANES includes three surveys (NHANES III, 1999–2000, and 2001–2002) and three race-ethnicities: non-Hispanic whites (n?=?6,634), non-Hispanic blacks (n?=?3,458), and Mexican Americans (n?=?3,950). We identified 69 PheWAS associations replicating across surveys for the same SNP, phenotype-class, direction of effect, and race-ethnicity at p 0.01, and sample size >200. Of these 69 PheWAS associations, 39 replicated previously reported SNP-phenotype associations, 9 were related to previously reported associations, and 21 were novel associations. Fourteen results had the same direction of effect across more than one race-ethnicity: one result was novel, 11 replicated previously reported associations, and two were related to previously reported results. Thirteen SNPs showed evidence of pleiotropy. We further explored results with gene-based biological networks, contrasting the direction of effect for pleiotropic associations across phenotypes. One PheWAS result was ABCG2 missense SNP rs2231142, associated with uric acid levels in both non-Hispanic whites and Mexican Americans, protoporphyrin levels in non-Hispanic whites and Mexican Americans, and blood pressure levels in Mexican Americans. Another example was SNP rs1800588 near LIPC , significantly associated with the novel phenotypes of folate levels (Mexican Americans), vitamin E levels (non-Hispanic whites) and triglyceride levels (non-Hispanic whites), and replication for cholesterol levels. The results of this PheWAS show the utility of this approach for exposing more of the complex genetic architecture underlying multiple traits, through generating novel hypotheses for future research. Author Summary The Epidemiological Architecture for Genes Linked to Environment (EAGLE) study performed a Phenome-Wide Association Study (PheWAS) to investigate comprehensive associations between a wide range of phenotypes and single-nucleotide polymorphisms using the diverse genotypic and phenotypic data that exists across multiple populations in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In this study, we replicated known genotype-phenotype associations, identified genotypes associated with phenotypes related to previously reported associations, and most importantly, identified a series of novel genotype-phenotype associations. We also identified potential pleiotropy; that is, SNPs associated with more than one phenotype. We explored the features of these PheWAS results, characterizing any potential functionality of the SNPs of this study, determining association results that were found in more than one racial/ethnic group for the same SNP and phenotype, identifying novel direction of effect relationships for SNPs demonstrating potential pleiotropy, and investigating the association results in the context of gene-based biological networks. Through considering the SNP associations on multiple phenotypic outcomes, as well as through exploring pleiotropy, we may be able to leverage the results of PheWAS to uncover more of the complex underlying genomic architecture of complex traits.