title: Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the Toll-like receptor 9 gene (TLR9): frequencies, pairwise linkage disequilibrium, and haplotypes in three U.S. ethnic groups and exploratory case-control disease association studies.
abstract: TLR9 is a mammalian Toll-like receptor homologue that appears to function as an innate immune pattern recognition protein for motifs that are far more common in bacterial than in mammalian DNA. The gene was sequenced in 71 subjects from three self-identified U.S. ethnic groups to identify single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A total of 20 SNPs were found of which only 20% were in the public dbSNP database. Four SNPs were relatively common in all three ethnic samples. Using these four SNPs, seven distinct haplotypes were statistically inferred, of which four accounted for 75% or more chromosomes. These four haplotypes could be distinguished from each other by the alleles of two SNPs (-1237 and 2848). Five exploratory nested case-control disease-association studies (asthma, DVT, MI, and COPD in European Americans and asthma in African Americans) were performed by genotyping DNA collected from four ongoing cohort studies. There was evidence suggesting increased risk for asthma with a C allele at -1237 (odds ratio 1.85, 95%CI 1.05 to 3.25) among European Americans (genotypes available from 67 cases and 152 controls). No other significant disease associations were detected. Replication of this finding in other, larger samples is needed. This study suggests that there is substantial diversity in human TLR9, possibly associated with asthma in Europeans but not African Americans. No association was detected with three other diseases potentially related to innate immunity.
authors.affiliation: Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. ross.lazarus@channing.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Ross
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lazarus
authors.forename: Walter T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Klimecki
authors.forename: Benjamin A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Raby
authors.forename: Donata
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vercelli
authors.forename: Lyle J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Palmer
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Kwiatkowski
authors.forename: Edwin K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Silverman
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.forename: Scott T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Weiss
mesh_terms: D044383:Black People; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D005787:Gene Frequency; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000235:genetics*; D051217:Toll-Like Receptor 9; D044465:White People; D001741:Black or African American
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface; C495371:TLR9 protein, human; D051217:Toll-Like Receptor 9