The EPIC-Norfolk Study
A cross-platform approach identifies genetic regulators of human metabolism and health.
Nature genetics 2020 ; 53: 54-64.
Lotta LA, Pietzner M, Stewart ID, Wittemans LBL, Li C, Bonelli R, Raffler J, Biggs EK, Oliver-Williams C, Auyeung VPW, Luan J, Wheeler E, Paige E, Surendran P, Michelotti GA, Scott RA, Burgess S, Zuber V, Sanderson E, Koulman A, Imamura F, Forouhi NG, Khaw KT, MacTel Consortium, Griffin JL, Wood AM, Kastenmüller G, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Gribble FM, Reimann F, Bahlo M, Fauman E, Wareham NJ, and Langenberg C
DOI : 10.1038/s41588-020-00751-5
PubMed ID : 33414548
PMCID :
URL : https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-020-00751-5
Abstract
In cross-platform analyses of 174 metabolites, we identify 499 associations (P < 4.9 × 10) characterized by pleiotropy, allelic heterogeneity, large and nonlinear effects and enrichment for nonsynonymous variation. We identify a signal at GLP2R (p.Asp470Asn) shared among higher citrulline levels, body mass index, fasting glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide and type 2 diabetes, with β-arrestin signaling as the underlying mechanism. Genetically higher serine levels are shown to reduce the likelihood (by 95%) and predict development of macular telangiectasia type 2, a rare degenerative retinal disease. Integration of genomic and small molecule data across platforms enables the discovery of regulators of human metabolism and translation into clinical insights.