title: Studying the Genetics of Complex Disease With Ancestry-Specific Human Phenotype Networks: The Case of Type 2 Diabetes in East Asian Populations.
abstract: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have led to the discovery of over 200 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Additionally, East Asians develop T2DM at a higher rate, younger age, and lower body mass index than their European ancestry counterparts. The reason behind this occurrence remains elusive. With comprehensive searches through the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) GWAS catalog literature, we compiled a database of 2,800 ancestry-specific SNPs associated with T2DM and 70 other related traits. Manual data extraction was necessary because the GWAS catalog reports statistics such as odds ratio and P-value, but does not consistently include ancestry information. Currently, many statistics are derived by combining initial and replication samples from study populations of mixed ancestry. Analysis of all-inclusive data can be misleading, as not all SNPs are transferable across diverse populations. We used ancestry data to construct ancestry-specific human phenotype networks (HPN) centered on T2DM. Quantitative and visual analysis of network models reveal the genetic disparities between ancestry groups. Of the 27 phenotypes in the East Asian HPN, six phenotypes were unique to the network, revealing the underlying ancestry-specific nature of some SNPs associated with T2DM. We studied the relationship between T2DM and five phenotypes unique to the East Asian HPN to generate new interaction hypotheses in a clinical context. The genetic differences found in our ancestry-specific HPNs suggest different pathways are involved in the pathogenesis of T2DM among different populations. Our study underlines the importance of ancestry in the development of T2DM and its implications in pharmocogenetics and personalized medicine.
authors.affiliation: Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, Lebanon, New Hampshire, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jingya
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomedical Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jason H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomedical Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.|Research Computing, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Darabos
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005202:Asia, Eastern; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000235:genetics; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics
keywords: East Asian populations; GWAS; complex disease; human phenotype network; type 2 diabetes