title: The heritable basis of gene-environment interactions in cardiometabolic traits.
abstract: Little is known about the heritable basis of gene-environment interactions in humans. We therefore screened multiple cardiometabolic traits to assess the probability that they are influenced by genotype-environment interactions.
  
  
  
  Fourteen established environmental risk exposures and 11 cardiometabolic traits were analysed in the VIKING study, a cohort of 16,430 Swedish adults from 1682 extended pedigrees with available detailed genealogical, phenotypic and demographic information, using a maximum likelihood variance decomposition method in Sequential Oligogenic Linkage Analysis Routines software.
  
  
  
  All cardiometabolic traits had statistically significant heritability estimates, with narrow-sense heritabilities (h2) ranging from 24% to 47%. Genotype-environment interactions were detected for age and sex (for the majority of traits), physical activity (for triacylglycerols, 2 h glucose and diastolic BP), smoking (for weight), alcohol intake (for weight, BMI and 2 h glucose) and diet pattern (for weight, BMI, glycaemic traits and systolic BP). Genotype-age interactions for weight and systolic BP, genotype-sex interactions for BMI and triacylglycerols and genotype-alcohol intake interactions for weight remained significant after multiple test correction.
  
  
  
  Age, sex and alcohol intake are likely to be major modifiers of genetic effects for a range of cardiometabolic traits. This information may prove valuable for studies that seek to identify specific loci that modify the effects of lifestyle in cardiometabolic disease.
authors.affiliation: Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences, Clinical Research Centre, Lund University, Jan Waldenströms gata 35, Building 91, Skåne University Hospital, SE-20502, Malmö, Sweden.|Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology and Animal Physiology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Bilbao, Spain.
authors.forename: Alaitz
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Poveda
authors.affiliation: Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences, Clinical Research Centre, Lund University, Jan Waldenströms gata 35, Building 91, Skåne University Hospital, SE-20502, Malmö, Sweden.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brändström
authors.affiliation: Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Engberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Biobank Research, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Göran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hallmans
authors.affiliation: Department of Biobank Research, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Ingegerd
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.affiliation: Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences, Clinical Research Centre, Lund University, Jan Waldenströms gata 35, Building 91, Skåne University Hospital, SE-20502, Malmö, Sweden.|Department of Biobank Research, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Frida
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Renström
authors.affiliation: Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences, Clinical Research Centre, Lund University, Jan Waldenströms gata 35, Building 91, Skåne University Hospital, SE-20502, Malmö, Sweden.
authors.forename: Azra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kurbasic
authors.affiliation: Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences, Clinical Research Centre, Lund University, Jan Waldenströms gata 35, Building 91, Skåne University Hospital, SE-20502, Malmö, Sweden. paul.franks@med.lu.se.|Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Section for Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden. paul.franks@med.lu.se.|Department of Nutrition, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. paul.franks@med.lu.se.
authors.forename: Paul W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Franks
mesh_terms: D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology; D005215:Fasting / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D008040:Genetic Linkage / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010375:Pedigree; D010641:Phenotype; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000503:physiopathology; D055105:Waist Circumference / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose
keywords: Cardiometabolic traits; Environment; Extended pedigrees; Gene; Heritability; Interaction; VIKING study