Identification of seven loci affecting mean telomere length and their association with disease (original) (raw)
References
- Blackburn, E.H., Greider, C.W. & Szostak, J.W. Telomeres and telomerase: the path from maize, Tetrahymena and yeast to human cancer and aging. Nat. Med. 12, 1133–1138 (2006).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Allsopp, R.C. et al. Telomere length predicts replicative capacity of human fibroblasts. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89, 10114–10118 (1992).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Wang, C. & Meier, U.T. Architecture and assembly of mammalian H/ACA small nucleolar and telomerase ribonucleoproteins. EMBO J. 23, 1857–1867 (2004).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Ma, H. et al. Shortened telomere length is associated with increased risk of cancer: a meta-analysis. PLoS ONE 6, e20466 (2011).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Wentzensen, I.M., Mirabello, L., Pfeiffer, R.M. & Savage, S.A. The association of telomere length and cancer; a meta-analysis. Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 20, 1238–1250 (2011).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Chang, S., Khoo, C.M., Naylor, M.L., Maser, R.S. & DePinho, R.A. Telomere-based crisis: functional differences between telomerase activation and ALT in tumour progression. Genes Dev. 17, 88–100 (2002).
Article Google Scholar - Slagboom, P.E., Droog, S. & Boomsma, D.I. Genetic determination of telomere size in humans: a twin study of three age groups. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 55, 876–882 (1994).
CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Njajou, O.T. et al. Telomere length is paternally inherited and is associated with parental lifespan. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 12135–12139 (2007).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Vasa Nicotera, M. et al. Mapping of a major locus that determines telomere length in humans. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 76, 147–151 (2005).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Wilson, W.R. et al. Blood leukocyte telomere DNA content predicts vascular telomere DNA content in humans with and without vascular disease. Eur. Heart J. 29, 2689–2694 (2008).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Okuda, K. et al. Telomere length in the newborn. Pediatr. Res. 52, 377–381 (2002).
Article PubMed Google Scholar - Brouilette, S., Singh, R.K., Thompson, J.R., Goodall, A.H. & Samani, N.J. White cell telomere length and risk of premature myocardial infarction. Arterioscler. Thromb. Vasc. Biol. 23, 842–846 (2003).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Brouilette, S. et al. Telomere length, risk of coronary heart disease, and statin treatment in the West of Scotland Primary Prevention Study: a nested case-control study. Heart 94, 422–425 (2008).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Fitzpatrick, A.L. et al. Leukocyte telomere length and cardiovascular disease in the cardiovascular health study. Am. J. Epidemiol. 165, 14–21 (2007).
Article PubMed Google Scholar - Benetos, A. et al. Short telomeres are associated with increased carotid atherosclerosis in hypertensive subjects. Hypertension 43, 182–185 (2004).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Samani, N.J. & van der Harst, P. Biological ageing and cardiovascular disease. Heart 94, 537–539 (2008).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Codd, V. et al. Common variants near TERC are associated with mean telomere length. Nat. Genet. 42, 197–199 (2010).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Levy, D. et al. Genome-wide association identifies OBFC1 as a locus involved in human leukocyte telomere biology. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107, 9293–9298 (2010).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Jones, A.M. et al. Terc polymorphisms are associated both with susceptibility to colorectal cancer and with longer telomeres. Gut 61, 248–254 (2012).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Egan, E.D. & Collins, K. An enhanced H/ACA RNP assembly mechanism for human telomerase RNA. Mol. Cell. Biol. 32, 2428–2439 (2012).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Miyake, Y. et al. RPA-like mammalian Ctc1-Stn1-Ten1 complex binds to single-stranded DNA and protects telomeres independently of the Pot1 pathway. Mol. Cell 36, 193–206 (2009).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Ding, H. et al. Regulation of murine telomere length by Rtel1: an essential gene encoding a helicase-like protein. Cell 117, 873–886 (2004).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Barber, L.J. et al. RTEL1 maintains genomic stability by suppressing homologous recombination. Cell 135, 261–271 (2008).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Kim, J.W., Kwon, O.Y. & Kim, M.H. Differentially expressed genes and morphological changes during lengthened immobilization in rat soleus muscle. Differentiation 75, 147–157 (2007).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Farzaneh-Far, R. et al. Telomere length trajectory and its determinants in persons with coronary artery disease: longitudinal findings from the heart and soul study. PLoS ONE 5, e8612 (2010).
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Alder, J.K. et al. Short telomeres are a risk factor for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105, 13051–13056 (2008).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Richter, T. & von Zglinicki, T. Continuous correlation between oxidative stress and telomere length shortening in fibroblasts. Exp. Gerontol. 41, 1039–1042 (2007).
Article Google Scholar - Valdes, A.M. et al. Obesity, cigarette smoking, and telomere length in women. Lancet 366, 662–664 (2005).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Bekaert, S. et al. Telomere length and cardiovascular risk factors in a middle-aged population free of overt cardiovascular disease. Aging Cell 6, 639–647 (2007).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Schunkert, H. et al. Large-scale association analysis identifies 13 new susceptibility loci for coronary artery disease. Nat. Genet. 43, 333–338 (2011).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - International Consortium for Blood Pressure Genome-Wide Association Studies. Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk. Nature 478, 103–109 (2011).
- Lin, J., Epel, E. & Blackburn, E. Telomeres and lifestyle factors: roles in cellular aging. Mutat. Res. 730, 85–89 (2012).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Farzaneh-Far, R. et al. Association of marine omega-3 fatty acid levels with telomeric aging in patients with coronary heart disease. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 303, 250–257 (2010).
Article CAS Google Scholar - Epel, E.S. et al. Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 17312–17315 (2004).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Minamino, T. et al. Endothelial cell senescence inhuman atherosclerosis: role of telomere in endothelial dysfunction. Circulation 105, 1541–1544 (2002).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Oh, H. et al. Telomerase reverse transcriptase promotes cardiac muscle cell proliferation, hypertrophy, and survival. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98, 10308–10313 (2001).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Wong, K.K. et al. Telomere dysfunction and Atm deficiency compromises organ homeostasis and accelerates ageing. Nature 421, 643–648 (2003).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Samper, E., Flores, J.M. & Blasco, M.A. Restoration of telomerase activity rescues chromosomal instability and premature aging in Terc−/− mice with short telomeres. EMBO Rep. 2, 800–807 (2001).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Jaskelioff, M. et al. Telomerase reactivation reverses tissue degeneration in aged telomerase deficient mice. Nature 469, 102–106 (2011).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Cawthon, R.M. Telomere measurement by quantitative PCR. Nucleic Acids Res. 30, e47 (2002).
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Cawthon, R.M. Telomere length measurement by a novel monochrome multiplex quantitative PCR method. Nucleic Acids Res. 37, e21 (2009).
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Higgins, J.P. et al. Measuring inconsistency in meta-analyses. Br. Med. J. 327, 557–560 (2003).
Article Google Scholar - Willer, C.J. et al. METAL: fast and efficient meta-analysis of genomewide association scans. Bioinformatics 26, 2190–2191 (2010).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Pe'er, I., Yelensky, R., Altshuler, D. & Daly, M.J. Estimation of the multiple testing burden for genomewide association studies of nearly all common variants. Genet. Epidemiol. 32, 381–385 (2008).
Article PubMed Google Scholar - Salpea, K.D. et al. Association of telomere length with type 2 diabetes, oxidative stress and UCP2 gene variation. Atherosclerosis 209, 42–50 (2010).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Pruim, R.J. et al. LocusZoom: regional visualization of genome-wide association scan results. Bioinformatics 26, 2336–2337 (2010).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Heid, I.M. et al. Meta-analysis identifies 13 new loci associated with waist-hip ratio and reveals sexual dimorphism in the genetic basis of fat distribution. Nat. Genet. 42, 949–960 (2010).
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Purcell, S., Cherny, S.S. & Sham, P.C. Genetic power calculator: design of linkage and association genetic mapping studies of complex traits. Bioinformatics 19, 149–150 (2003).
CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Adzhubei, I.A. et al. A method and server for predicting damaging missense mutations. Nat. Methods 7, 248–249 (2010).
CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Kumar, P., Henikoff, S. & Ng, P.C. Predicting the effects of coding non-synonymous variants on protein function using the SIFT algorithm. Nat. Protoc. 4, 1073–1081 (2009).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Zeller, T. et al. Genetics and beyond—the transcriptome of human monocytes and disease susceptibility. PLoS ONE 5, e10693 (2010).
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Rosenbloom, K.R. et al. ENCODE whole-genome data in the UCSC Genome Browser: update 2012. Nucleic Acids Res. 40, d912–d917 (2012).
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar
Acknowledgements
This study was undertaken under the framework of European Union Framework 7 ENGAGE Project (HEALTH-F4-2007-201413). A full list of acknowledgments, including support for each study, is provided in the Supplementary Note.
Author information
Author notes
- Veryan Codd, Christopher P Nelson, Eva Albrecht, Massimo Mangino and Pim van der Harst: These authors contributed equally to this work.
Authors and Affiliations
- Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
Veryan Codd, Christopher P Nelson, Mary K Matthews, Peter S Braund, Matthew Denniff, Elena Dubinina, Helen Pollard, Pim van der Harst & Nilesh J Samani - National Institute for Health Research Leicester Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit, Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, UK
Veryan Codd, Christopher P Nelson & Nilesh J Samani - Institute of Genetic Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München–German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
Eva Albrecht & Christian Gieger - Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London, UK
Massimo Mangino, Ana M Valdes, Ana Viñuela & Tim D Spector - Section of Molecular Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
Joris Deelen, Marian Beekman, H Eka D Suchiman & P Eline Slagboom - Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
Joris Deelen, Linda Broer, Marian Beekman, Jeanine J Houwing-Duistermaat, Cornelia M van Duijn & P Eline Slagboom - Section of Investigative Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK
Jessica L Buxton & Alexandra I F Blakemore - Department of Biological Psychology, Netherlands Twin Register, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Jouke Jan Hottenga, Gonneke Willemsen & Dorret I Boomsma - Estonian Genome Center, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
Krista Fischer, Tõnu Esko, Konstantinos Douroudis, Reedik Mägi, Evelin Mihailov, Markus Perola & Andres Metspalu - Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Ida Surakka, Johannes Kettunen, Samuli Ripatti, Elisabeth Widen, Markus Perola & Jaakko Kaprio - Department of Chronic Disease Prevention, Public Health Genomics Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
Ida Surakka, Perttu Salo, Johan G Eriksson, Johannes Kettunen, Satu Männistö, Samuli Ripatti, Veikko Salomaa & Markus Perola - Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Linda Broer, Najaf Amin, Lennart C Karssen, Elisabeth M van Leeuwen, Ben A Oostra & Cornelia M van Duijn - Centre for Medical Systems Biology, Leiden, The Netherlands
Linda Broer & Cornelia M van Duijn - Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia
Dale R Nyholt, Anjali K Henders, Sarah E Medland, Grant W Montgomery, Margaret J Wright & Nicholas G Martin - Department of Cardiology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center, Groningen, The Netherlands
Irene Mateo Leach, Rudolf A de Boer, Niek Verweij, Dirk J van Veldhuisen, Wiek H van Gilst & Pim van der Harst - Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Sara Hägg, Patrik K E Magnusson & Nancy L Pedersen - Institute of Cardiovascular Science, Univerisity College London, London, UK
Jutta Palmen & Philippa J Talmud - Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
Giuseppe D Norata & Alberico L Catapano - Centro Societa Italiana per lo Studio dell'Aterosclerosi, Bassini Hospital, Cinisello B, Italy
Giuseppe D Norata & Katia Garlaschelli - The Blizard Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University, London, UK
Giuseppe D Norata - Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College, London, UK
Paul F O'Reilly & Marjo-Riitta Jarvelin - Medical Research Council–Health Protection Agency Centre for Environment and Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK
Paul F O'Reilly & Marjo-Riitta Jarvelin - Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Danish Saleheen - Center for Non-Communicable Diseases, Karachi, Pakistan
Danish Saleheen - Division of Epidemiology, Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics, School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Anthony J Balmforth & Alistair S Hall - Section of Medical Statistics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
Stefan Böhringer & Jeanine J Houwing-Duistermaat - Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
Paul R Burton, Martin D Tobin & John R Thompson - Department of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
Anton J Mde Craen - Georgia Prevention Institute, Georgia Health Sciences University, Augusta, Georgia, USA
Yanbin Dong, Dehuang Guo, Xiaoling Wang & Haidong Zhu - Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Johan G Eriksson - Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland
Johan G Eriksson - Unit of General Practice, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
Johan G Eriksson - Institute of Clinical Medicine/Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
Anna-Liisa Hartikainen & Anneli Pouta - Research Programs Unit, Molecular Neurology, Biomedicum Helsinki, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Laura Kananen & Iiris Hovatta - Department of Medical Genetics, Haartman Institute, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Laura Kananen & Iiris Hovatta - Research Unit of Molecular Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München–German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
Norman Klopp & Annette Peters - Hanover Unified Biobank, Hanover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
Norman Klopp - Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Vasiliki Lagou, Mark I McCarthy & Inga Prokopenko - Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Pamela A Madden - Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Mark I McCarthy - Oxford National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, UK
Mark I McCarthy - Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK
Aarno Palotie, Samuli Ripatti & Willem Ouwehand - Department of Medical Genetics, University of Helsinki and the Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
Aarno Palotie - Institute of Epidemiology II, Helmholtz Zentrum München–German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
Annette Peters - Munich Heart Alliance, Munich, Germany
Annette Peters - National Institute for Health and Welfare, Oulu, Finland
Anneli Pouta - Institute of Epidemiology I, Helmholtz Zentrum München–German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
H-Erich Wichmann - Institute of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, Chair of Epidemiology, Ludwig Maximilians Universität, Munich, Germany
H-Erich Wichmann - KlinikumGrosshadern, Munich, Germany
H-Erich Wichmann - Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Kai Xia - Department of Epidemiology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
Xiangjun Xiao - Instituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Multimedica, Milan, Italy
Alberico L Catapano - UniversitätzuLübeck, Medizinische Klinik II, Lübeck, Germany
Jeanette Erdmann & Heribert Schunkert - The Cardiovascular Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Muredach P Reilly - Cardiovascular Research Center and Cardiology Division, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Sekar Kathiresan - Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Sekar Kathiresan - Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Sekar Kathiresan - Department of Hematology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Willem Ouwehand - National Health Service Blood and Transplant, Cambridge, UK
Willem Ouwehand - Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Hjelt Institute, Helsinki, Finland
Jaakko Kaprio - Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
Jaakko Kaprio & Iiris Hovatta - Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
Marjo-Riitta Jarvelin - Biocenter Oulu, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
Marjo-Riitta Jarvelin - Department of Lifecourse and Services, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Oulu, Finland
Marjo-Riitta Jarvelin - Department of Genetics, University of Groningen, University Medical Center, Groningen, The Netherlands
Pim van der Harst
Authors
- Veryan Codd
- Christopher P Nelson
- Eva Albrecht
- Massimo Mangino
- Joris Deelen
- Jessica L Buxton
- Jouke Jan Hottenga
- Krista Fischer
- Tõnu Esko
- Ida Surakka
- Linda Broer
- Dale R Nyholt
- Irene Mateo Leach
- Perttu Salo
- Sara Hägg
- Mary K Matthews
- Jutta Palmen
- Giuseppe D Norata
- Paul F O'Reilly
- Danish Saleheen
- Najaf Amin
- Anthony J Balmforth
- Marian Beekman
- Rudolf A de Boer
- Stefan Böhringer
- Peter S Braund
- Paul R Burton
- Anton J Mde Craen
- Matthew Denniff
- Yanbin Dong
- Konstantinos Douroudis
- Elena Dubinina
- Johan G Eriksson
- Katia Garlaschelli
- Dehuang Guo
- Anna-Liisa Hartikainen
- Anjali K Henders
- Jeanine J Houwing-Duistermaat
- Laura Kananen
- Johannes Kettunen
- Norman Klopp
- Vasiliki Lagou
- Elisabeth M van Leeuwen
- Pamela A Madden
- Reedik Mägi
- Patrik K E Magnusson
- Satu Männistö
- Mark I McCarthy
- Sarah E Medland
- Evelin Mihailov
- Grant W Montgomery
- Ben A Oostra
- Aarno Palotie
- Annette Peters
- Helen Pollard
- Anneli Pouta
- Inga Prokopenko
- Samuli Ripatti
- Veikko Salomaa
- H Eka D Suchiman
- Ana M Valdes
- Niek Verweij
- Ana Viñuela
- Xiaoling Wang
- H-Erich Wichmann
- Elisabeth Widen
- Gonneke Willemsen
- Margaret J Wright
- Kai Xia
- Xiangjun Xiao
- Dirk J van Veldhuisen
- Alberico L Catapano
- Martin D Tobin
- Alistair S Hall
- Alexandra I F Blakemore
- Wiek H van Gilst
- Haidong Zhu
- Jeanette Erdmann
- Muredach P Reilly
- Sekar Kathiresan
- Heribert Schunkert
- Philippa J Talmud
- Nancy L Pedersen
- Markus Perola
- Willem Ouwehand
- Jaakko Kaprio
- Nicholas G Martin
- Cornelia M van Duijn
- Iiris Hovatta
- Christian Gieger
- Andres Metspalu
- Dorret I Boomsma
- Marjo-Riitta Jarvelin
- P Eline Slagboom
- John R Thompson
- Tim D Spector
- Pim van der Harst
- Nilesh J Samani
Consortia
CARDIoGRAM consortium
Contributions
V.C. and N.J.S. supervised the overall study. V.C., M.M., T.D.S., P.v.d.H. and N.J.S. designed the study. M.M., T.E., D.R.N., R.A.d.B., G.D.N., D.S., N.A., A.J.B., P.S.B., P.R.B., K.D., M.D., J.G.E., K.G., A.-L.H., A.K.H., L.C. Karssen, J.K., N.K., V.L., I.M.L., E.M.v.L., P.A.M., R.M., P.K.E.M., S.M., M.I.M., S.E.M., E.M., G.W.M., B.A.O., J.P., A. Palotie, A. Peters, Anneli Pouta, I.P., S.R.,V.S., A.M.V., N.V., A.V., H.-E.W., E.W., G.W., M.J.W., K.X., X.X., D.J.v.V., A.L.C., M.D.T., A.S.H., A.I.F.B., P.J.T., N.L.P., M.P., J.D., W.O., J. Kaprio, N.G.M., C.M.v.D., C.G., A.M., D.I.B., M.-R.J., W.H.v.G., P.E.S., T.D.S., P.v.d.H. and N.J.S. contributed to recruitment, study and data management, genotyping and/or imputation of individual studies. V.C., J.L.B., M.K.M., R.A.d.B., J.P., E.D., L.K., H.P., P.T.J. and I.H. measured telomere length. C.P.N., E.A., M.M., J.D., J.L.B., J.J.H., K.F., T.E., I.S., L.B., D.R.N., R.A.d.B., P.S., S.H., G.D.N., P.F.O., I.M.L., S.E.M. and P.v.d.H. undertook association analysis of individual studies; C.P.N., E.A. and J.R.T. carried out the meta-analysis and the additional reported analyses. H.Z., X.W., D.G. and Y.D. provided data on telomerase activity and genotypes. J.E., M.P.R., S.K. and H.S. contributed CAD association data on behalf of CARDIoGRAM. V.C. and N.J.S. prepared the paper together with C.P.N., E.A., M.M. and P.v.d.H. and all authors reviewed the paper.
Corresponding author
Correspondence toNilesh J Samani.
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Additional information
A full list of members is provided in the Supplementary Note.
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Codd, V., Nelson, C., Albrecht, E. et al. Identification of seven loci affecting mean telomere length and their association with disease.Nat Genet 45, 422–427 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2528
- Received: 26 June 2012
- Accepted: 19 December 2012
- Published: 27 March 2013
- Issue date: April 2013
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2528