The Allelic Landscape of Human Blood Cell Trait Variation and Links to Common Complex Disease

Summary

Many common variants have been associated with hematological traits, but identification of causal genes and pathways has proven challenging. We performed a genome-wide association analysis in the UK Biobank and INTERVAL studies, testing 29.5 million genetic variants for association with 36 red cell, white cell, and platelet properties in 173,480 European-ancestry participants. This effort yielded hundreds of low frequency (<5%) and rare (<1%) variants with a strong impact on blood cell phenotypes. Our data highlight general properties of the allelic architecture of complex traits, including the proportion of the heritable component of each blood trait explained by the polygenic signal across different genome regulatory domains. Finally, through Mendelian randomization, we provide evidence of shared genetic pathways linking blood cell indices with complex pathologies, including autoimmune diseases, schizophrenia, and coronary heart disease and evidence suggesting previously reported population associations between blood cell indices and cardiovascular disease may be non-causal.

Graphical Abstract

Highlights

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  Genome-wide association study interrogates 36 traits across the hematopoietic system

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  A total of 2,706 associated variants, including 130 rare and 230 low frequency

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  Describes allelic spectrum and heritability of coding and regulatory variants

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  Unravels causal contributions to cardiovascular, immune, and psychiatric disease

Abstract

As part of the IHEC Consortium, this study probes the allelic architecture and regulatory landscape of cellular complex traits with power to identify causal pathways and links to diseases such as schizophrenia. Explore the Cell Press IHEC web portal at http://www.cell.com/consortium/IHEC.