Genetic determinants of Vitamin D deficiency in the Middle Eastern Qatari population: a genome-wide association study

<h3>Introduction</h3><p dir="ltr">Epidemiological studies have consistently revealed that Vitamin D deficiency is most prevalent in Middle Eastern countries. However, research on the impact of genetic loci and polygenic models related to Vitamin D has primarily focused on...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Nagham Nafiz Hendi (17064261) (author)
Other Authors: Yasser Al-Sarraj (11721425) (author), Umm-Kulthum Ismail Umlai (19420594) (author), Karsten Suhre (67967) (author), Georges Nemer (295984) (author), Omar Albagha (8977856) (author)
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:<h3>Introduction</h3><p dir="ltr">Epidemiological studies have consistently revealed that Vitamin D deficiency is most prevalent in Middle Eastern countries. However, research on the impact of genetic loci and polygenic models related to Vitamin D has primarily focused on European populations.</p><h3>Methods</h3><p dir="ltr">We conducted the first genome-wide association study to identify genetic determinants of Vitamin D levels in Middle Easterners using a whole genome sequencing approach in 6,047 subjects from the Qatar Biobank (QBB) project. We performed a GWAS meta-analysis, combining the QBB cohort with recent European GWAS data from the UK Biobank (involving 345,923 individuals). Additionally, we evaluated the performance of European-derived polygenic risk scores using UK Biobank data in the QBB cohort.</p><h3>Results</h3><p dir="ltr">Our study identified an association between a variant in a known locus for the group-specific component gene (<i>GC</i>), specifically rs2298850 (<i>p</i>-value = 1.71 × 10−<sup>08</sup>, Beta = −0.1285), and Vitamin D levels. Furthermore, our GWAS meta-analysis identified two novel variants at a known locus on chromosome 11, rs67609747 and rs1945603, that reached the GWAS significance threshold. Notably, we observed a moderately high heritability of Vitamin D, estimated at 18%, compared to Europeans. Despite the lower predictive performance of Vitamin D levels in Qataris compared to Europeans, the European-derived polygenic risk scores exhibited significant links to Vitamin D deficiency risk within the QBB cohort.</p><h3>Conclusion</h3><p dir="ltr">This novel study reveals the genetic architecture contributing to Vitamin D deficiency in the Qatari population, emphasizing the genetic heterogeneity across different populations.</p><h2>Other Information</h2><p dir="ltr">Published in: Frontiers in Nutrition<br>License: <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</a><br>See article on publisher's website: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2023.1242257" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2023.1242257</a></p>