Detection and interpretation of shared genetic influences on 42 human traits

Abstract

We performed a scan for genetic variants associated with multiple phenotypes by comparing large genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of 42 traits or diseases. We identified 341 loci (at an FDR of 10%) associated with multiple traits. Several loci are associated with a large number of phenotypes; for example, a nonsynonymous variant in the zinc transporter SLC39A8 influences seven of these traits, including risk of schizophrenia (rs13107325: log-odds ratio = 0.15, P = 2 × 10 ⁻¹²) and Parkinson's disease (log-odds ratio = −0.15, P = 1.6 × 10 ⁻⁷), among others. Second, we used these loci to identify traits that share multiple genetic causes in common. For example, variants that increase risk of schizophrenia also tend to increase risk of inflammatory bowel disease. Finally, we developed a method to identify pairs of traits that show evidence of a causal relationship. For example, we show evidence that increased BMI causally increases triglyceride levels.