A meta-analysis identifies new loci associated with body mass index in individuals of African ancestry

Keri L Monda, Gary K Chen, Kira C Taylor, Cameron Palmer, Todd L Edwards, Leslie A Lange, Maggie C Y Ng, Adebowale A Adeyemo, Matthew A Allison, Lawrence F Bielak, Guanjie Chen, Mariaelisa Graff, Marguerite R Irvin, Suhn K Rhie, Guo Li, Yongmei Liu, Youfang Liu, Yingchang Lu, Michael A Nalls, Yan V Sun, Mary K Wojczynski, Lisa R Yanek, Melinda C Aldrich, Adeyinka Ademola, Christopher I Amos, Elisa V Bandera, Cathryn H Bock, Angela Britton, Ulrich Broeckel, Quiyin Cai, Neil E Caporaso, Chris S Carlson, John Carpten, Graham Casey, Wei-Min Chen, Fang Chen, Yii-Der I Chen, Charleston W K Chiang, Gerhard A Coetzee, Ellen Demerath, Sandra L Deming-Halverson, Ryan W Driver, Patricia Dubbert, Mary F Feitosa, Ye Feng, Barry I Freedman, Elizabeth M Gillanders, Omri Gottesman, Xiuqing Guo, Talin Haritunians, Tamara Harris, Curtis C Harris, Anselm J M Hennis, Dena G Hernandez, Lorna H McNeill, Timothy D Howard, Barbara V Howard, Virginia J Howard, Karen C Johnson, Sun J Kang, Brendan J Keating, Suzanne Kolb, Lewis H Kuller, Abdullah Kutlar, Carl D Langefeld, Guillaume Lettre, Kurt Lohman, Vaneet Lotay, Helen Lyon, JoAnn E Manson, William Maixner, Yan A Meng, Kristine R Monroe, Imran Morhason-Bello, Adam B Murphy, Josyf C Mychaleckyj, Rajiv Nadukuru, Katherine L Nathanson, Uma Nayak, Amidou N'Diaye, Barbara Nemesure, Suh-Yuh Wu, M Cristina Leske, Christine Neslund-Dudas, Marian Neuhouser, Sarah Nyante, Heather Ochs-Balcom, Adesola Ogunniyi, Temidayo O Ogundiran, Oladosu Ojengbede, Olufunmilayo I Olopade, Julie R Palmer, Edward A Ruiz-Narvaez, Nicholette D Palmer, Michael F Press, Evandine Rampersaud, Laura J Rasmussen-Torvik, Jorge L Rodriguez-Gil, Babatunde Salako, Eric E Schadt, Ann G Schwartz, Daniel A Shriner, David Siscovick, Shad B Smith, Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, Elizabeth K Speliotes, Margaret R Spitz, Lara Sucheston, Herman Taylor, Bamidele O Tayo, Margaret A Tucker, David J Van Den Berg, Digna R Velez Edwards, Zhaoming Wang, John K Wiencke, Thomas W Winkler, John S Witte, Margaret Wrensch, Xifeng Wu, James J Yang, Albert M Levin, Taylor R Young, Neil A Zakai, Mary Cushman, Krista A Zanetti, Jing Hua Zhao, Wei Zhao, Yonglan Zheng, Jie Zhou, Regina G Ziegler, Joseph M Zmuda, Jyotika K Fernandes, Gary S Gilkeson, Diane L Kamen, Kelly J Hunt, Ida J Spruill, Christine B Ambrosone, Stefan Ambs, Donna K Arnett, Larry Atwood, Diane M Becker, Sonja I Berndt, Leslie Bernstein, William J Blot, Ingrid B Borecki, Erwin P Bottinger, Donald W Bowden, Gregory Burke, Stephen J Chanock, Richard S Cooper, Jingzhong Ding, David Duggan, Michele K Evans, Caroline Fox, W Timothy Garvey, Jonathan P Bradfield, Hakon Hakonarson, Struan F A Grant, Ann Hsing, Lisa Chu, Jennifer J Hu, Dezheng Huo, Sue A Ingles, Esther M John, Joanne M Jordan, Edmond K Kabagambe, Sharon L R Kardia, Rick A Kittles, Phyllis J Goodman, Eric A Klein, Laurence N Kolonel, Loic Le Marchand, Simin Liu, Barbara McKnight, Robert C Millikan, Thomas H Mosley, Badri Padhukasahasram, L Keoki Williams, Sanjay R Patel, Ulrike Peters, Curtis A Pettaway, Patricia A Peyser, Bruce M Psaty, Susan Redline, Charles N Rotimi, Benjamin A Rybicki, Michèle M Sale, Pamela J Schreiner, Lisa B Signorello, Andrew B Singleton, Janet L Stanford, Sara S Strom, Michael J Thun, Mara Vitolins, Wei Zheng, Jason H Moore, Scott M Williams, Shamika Ketkar, Xiaofeng Zhu, Alan B Zonderman, Charles Kooperberg, George J Papanicolaou, Brian E Henderson, Alex P Reiner, Joel N Hirschhorn, Ruth J F Loos, Kari E North, Christopher A Haiman

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 36 loci associated with body mass index (BMI), predominantly in populations of European ancestry. We conducted a meta-analysis to examine the association of >3.2 million SNPs with BMI in 39,144 men and women of African ancestry and followed up the most significant associations in an additional 32,268 individuals of African ancestry. We identified one new locus at 5q33 (GALNT10, rs7708584, P = 3.4 × 10(-11)) and another at 7p15 when we included data from the GIANT consortium (MIR148A-NFE2L3, rs10261878, P = 1.2 × 10(-10)). We also found suggestive evidence of an association at a third locus at 6q16 in the African-ancestry sample (KLHL32, rs974417, P = 6.9 × 10(-8)). Thirty-two of the 36 previously established BMI variants showed directionally consistent effect estimates in our GWAS (binomial P = 9.7 × 10(-7)), five of which reached genome-wide significance. These findings provide strong support for shared BMI loci across populations, as well as for the utility of studying ancestrally diverse populations.