Authors
Andrew M. Zeiger, University of California, San Francisco
Marquitta J. White, University of California, San Francisco
Celeste Eng, University of California, San Francisco
Sam S. Oh, University of California, San Francisco
Jonathan Witonsky, University of California, San Francisco
Pagé C. Goddard, University of California, San Francisco
Maria G. Contreras, University of California, San Francisco
Jennifer R. Elhawary, University of California, San Francisco
Donglei Hu, University of California, San Francisco
Angel C. Y. Mak, University of California, San Francisco
Eunice Y. Lee, University of California, San Francisco
Kevin L. Keys, University of California, San Francisco
Lesly-Anne Samedy, University of California, San Francisco
Oona Risse Adams, University of California, San Francisco
Joaquín Magaña, University of California, San Francisco
Scott Huntsman, University of California, San Francisco
Sandra Salazar, University of California, San Francisco
Adam Davis, Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland
Kelley Meade, Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland
Emerita Brigino-Buenaventura, Kaiser Permanente–Vallejo Medical Center
Michael A. LeNoir, Bay Area Pediatrics
Harold J. Farber, Baylor College of Medicine
Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, University of California, San Francisco
Luisa N. Borrell, CUNY School of Public HealthFollow
Esteban G. Burchard, University of California, San Francisco
Publication Date
9-5-2018
Abstract
Telomere length (TL) is associated with numerous disease states and is affected by genetic and environmental factors. However, TL has been mostly studied in adult populations of European or Asian ancestry. These studies have identified 34 TL-associated genetic variants recently used as genetic proxies for TL. The generalizability of these associations to pediatric populations and racially diverse populations, specifically of African ancestry, remains unclear. Furthermore, six novel variants associated with TL in a population of European children have been identified but not validated. We measured TL from whole blood samples of 492 healthy African American youth (children and adolescents between 8 and 20 years old) and performed the first genome-wide association study of TL in this population. We were unable to replicate neither the 34 reported genetic associations found in adults nor the six genetic associations found in European children. However, we discovered a novel genome-wide significant association between TL and rs1483898 on chromosome 14. Our results underscore the importance of examining genetic associations with TL in diverse pediatric populations such as African Americans.
Comments
This article was originally published in Scientific Reports, available at DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-31238-3.
Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.