Genetic Determinants of Telomere Length in African American Youth

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

Document Type

Article

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.