TY - JOUR
T1 - Stratification by Smoking Status Reveals an Association of CHRNA5-A3-B4 Genotype with Body Mass Index in Never Smokers
AU - CARTA
AU - Taylor, Amy E.
AU - Morris, Richard W.
AU - Fluharty, Meg E.
AU - Bjorngaard, Johan H.
AU - Åsvold, Bjørn Olav
AU - Gabrielsen, Maiken E.
AU - Campbell, Archie
AU - Marioni, Riccardo
AU - Kumari, Meena
AU - Hällfors, Jenni
AU - Männistö, Satu
AU - Marques-Vidal, Pedro
AU - Kaakinen, Marika
AU - Cavadino, Alana
AU - Postmus, Iris
AU - Husemoen, Lise Lotte N.
AU - Skaaby, Tea
AU - Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S.
AU - Treur, Jorien L.
AU - Willemsen, Gonneke
AU - Dale, Caroline
AU - Wannamethee, S. Goya
AU - Lahti, Jari
AU - Palotie, Aarno
AU - Räikkönen, Katri
AU - Kisialiou, Aliaksei
AU - McConnachie, Alex
AU - Padmanabhan, Sandosh
AU - Wong, Andrew
AU - Dalgård, Christine
AU - Paternoster, Lavinia
AU - Ben-Shlomo, Yoav
AU - Tyrrell, Jessica
AU - Horwood, John
AU - Fergusson, David M.
AU - Kennedy, Martin A.
AU - Frayling, Tim
AU - Nohr, Ellen A.
AU - Christiansen, Lene
AU - Ohm Kyvik, Kirsten
AU - Kuh, Diana
AU - Watt, Graham
AU - Eriksson, Johan
AU - Whincup, Peter H.
AU - Vink, Jacqueline M.
AU - Boomsma, Dorret I.
AU - Davey Smith, George
AU - Lawlor, Debbie
AU - Linneberg, Allan
AU - Ford, Ian
AU - Asvold, B.O.
AU - Dalgard, C.
AU - Jukema, J.W.
AU - Power, C.
AU - Hyppönen, E.
AU - Järvelin, M.R.
AU - Preisig, M.
AU - Borodulin, K.
AU - Kaprio, J.
AU - Kivimaki, M.
AU - Smith, B.H.
AU - Hayward, C.
AU - Romundstad, P.R.
AU - Sørensen, T.I.A.
AU - Munafo, M.R.
AU - Sattar, N.
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2014 Taylor et al.
PY - 2014/12/1
Y1 - 2014/12/1
N2 - We previously used a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the CHRNA5-A3-B4 gene cluster associated with heaviness of smoking within smokers to confirm the causal effect of smoking in reducing body mass index (BMI) in a Mendelian randomisation analysis. While seeking to extend these findings in a larger sample we found that this SNP is associated with 0.74% lower body mass index (BMI) per minor allele in current smokers (95% CI -0.97 to -0.51, P = 2.00×10−10), but also unexpectedly found that it was associated with 0.35% higher BMI in never smokers (95% CI +0.18 to +0.52, P = 6.38×10−5). An interaction test confirmed that these estimates differed from each other (P = 4.95×10−13). This difference in effects suggests the variant influences BMI both via pathways unrelated to smoking, and via the weight-reducing effects of smoking. It would therefore be essentially undetectable in an unstratified genome-wide association study of BMI, given the opposite association with BMI in never and current smokers. This demonstrates that novel associations may be obscured by hidden population sub-structure. Stratification on well-characterized environmental factors known to impact on health outcomes may therefore reveal novel genetic associations.
AB - We previously used a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the CHRNA5-A3-B4 gene cluster associated with heaviness of smoking within smokers to confirm the causal effect of smoking in reducing body mass index (BMI) in a Mendelian randomisation analysis. While seeking to extend these findings in a larger sample we found that this SNP is associated with 0.74% lower body mass index (BMI) per minor allele in current smokers (95% CI -0.97 to -0.51, P = 2.00×10−10), but also unexpectedly found that it was associated with 0.35% higher BMI in never smokers (95% CI +0.18 to +0.52, P = 6.38×10−5). An interaction test confirmed that these estimates differed from each other (P = 4.95×10−13). This difference in effects suggests the variant influences BMI both via pathways unrelated to smoking, and via the weight-reducing effects of smoking. It would therefore be essentially undetectable in an unstratified genome-wide association study of BMI, given the opposite association with BMI in never and current smokers. This demonstrates that novel associations may be obscured by hidden population sub-structure. Stratification on well-characterized environmental factors known to impact on health outcomes may therefore reveal novel genetic associations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84919663860&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1004799
DO - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1004799
M3 - Article
C2 - 25474695
SN - 1553-7390
VL - 10
JO - PLoS genetics
JF - PLoS genetics
IS - 12
M1 - e1004799
ER -