Project description:There is extensive variation in DNA methylation between individuals and ethnic groups. These differences can arise from a combination of genetic and non-genetic influences and potential modifiers include nutritional cues, early life experience, and social and physical environments. Here we have assayed genome-wide DNA methylation in neonatal cord blood from African American, European American, and other ancestral groups. This is part of the CANDLE Study (Conditions Affecting Neurocognitive Development and Learning in Early Childhood). Our overarching goal is to determine the different environmental and maternal factors that can modify DNA methylation in newborns.
Project description:There is extensive variation in DNA methylation between individuals and ethnic groups. These differences can arise from a combination of genetic and non-genetic influences and potential modifiers include nutritional cues, early life experience, and social and physical environments. Here we have assayed genome-wide DNA methylation in neonatal cord blood from African American, European American, and other ancestral groups. This is part of the CANDLE Study (Conditions Affecting Neurocognitive Development and Learning in Early Childhood). Our overarching goal is to determine the different environmental and maternal factors that can modify DNA methylation in newborns. This is a cross-sectional study of a total of 216 racially diverse participants of CANDLE. Cordblood was collected at birth. DNA methylation was measured using the Illumina HumanMethylation27 BeadChip. Based on maternal self-report, the samples are 112 African Americans, 91 European Americans and 13 other racial or mixed race group.
Project description:Glucocorticoids (GCs) are steroid hormones widely used as pharmaceutical interventions, which act mainly by regulating gene expression levels. A large fraction of patients (~30%), especially those of African descent, show a weak response to treatment. To interrogate the contribution of variable transcriptional response to inter-ethnic differences, we measured in vitro lymphocyte GC sensitivity (LGS) and transcriptome-wide response to GCs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from African-American and European-American healthy donors. We found that transcriptional response after 8hrs treatment was significantly correlated with variation in LGS within and between populations. We found that NFKB1, a gene previously found to predict LGS within populations, was more strongly downregulated in European-Americans on average. NFKB1 could not completely explain population differences, however, and we found an additional 177 genes with population differences in the average log2 fold change (FDR<0.05), most of which also showed a weaker transcriptional response in AfricanAmericans. These results suggest that inter-ethnic differences in GC sensitivity reflect variation in transcriptional response at many genes, including regulators with large effects (e.g. NFKB1) and numerous other genes with smaller effects.
Project description:Glucocorticoids (GCs) are steroid hormones widely used as pharmaceutical interventions, which act mainly by regulating gene expression levels. A large fraction of patients (~30%), especially those of African descent, show a weak response to treatment. To interrogate the contribution of variable transcriptional response to inter-ethnic differences, we measured in vitro lymphocyte GC sensitivity (LGS) and transcriptome-wide response to GCs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from African-American and European-American healthy donors. We found that transcriptional response after 8hrs treatment was significantly correlated with variation in LGS within and between populations. We found that NFKB1, a gene previously found to predict LGS within populations, was more strongly downregulated in European-Americans on average. NFKB1 could not completely explain population differences, however, and we found an additional 177 genes with population differences in the average log2 fold change (FDR<0.05), most of which also showed a weaker transcriptional response in AfricanAmericans. These results suggest that inter-ethnic differences in GC sensitivity reflect variation in transcriptional response at many genes, including regulators with large effects (e.g. NFKB1) and numerous other genes with smaller effects. Total RNA was obtained from paired aliquots of peripheral blood mononuclear cells treated with dexamethasone or vehicle (EtOH) for 8 and 24 hours.
Project description:Elucidating the genetic basis underlying the variation in hepatic gene expression is of importance to understand disease etiology and drug metabolism variances. To date, no genome-wide eQTL analysis has been conducted in the Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in the world. We performed a genome-wide eQTL mapping in a set of Han Chinese liver tissue (n=64).
Project description:The Malaysian Node of the Human Variome Project Database (MyHVPDb) is a country specific database of human variant and gene mutation that was established in 2011. This ethnic specific mutation and variation databases are being continuously updated, recording extensive information over the genetic heterogeneity of the Malaysian ethnic groups. The database comprises of SNP Database and Mutation Database. The SNP database has stored 291718 SNPs that was obtained by genotyping the SNPs of 101 healthy individuals from six Malay sub-ethnic groups which consist of Malay Kelantan, Malay Banjar, Malay Kedah, Malay Jawa, Malay Bugis and Malay Champa.
Project description:VCF files with whole genome sequencing data of 49 individuals of European/Romanian descent, and 50 individuals of Roma (Romani/Rroma) ethnic background from Romania.
Project description:BAM files (Illumina HiSeq 2000) with whole genome sequencing data of 49 individuals of European/Romanian descent, and 50 individuals of Roma (Romani/Rroma) ethnic background from Romania.
Project description:Myanmar locates in the crossroads of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, and is known for high culture diversity in different ethnic groups. It is considered to be important for understanding human evolutionary history and genetic diversity in East Eurasia. However, relatively few studies have examined the population structure and demographic history in Myanmar to date. In this study, we analyzed more than 220,000 genome-wide SNPs in 175 new samples of five ethnic groups from Myanmar and compared them with the published data. Our results showed that the Myanmar population is intricately substructured, with the main observed clusters corresponding roughly to western/northern highlanders (Chin, Naga, and Jingpo) and central/southern lowlanders (Bamar and Rakhine). The gene flow inferred from South Asia has a substantial influence (~11%) on the gene pool of central/southern lowlanders rather than western/northern highlanders. The genetic admixture is dated around 650 years ago. These findings suggest that the genome-wide variation in Myanmar was likely shaped by the linguistic, cultural, and historical changes.
Project description:Musunuru, Brown, Rader, and colleagues of the NHLBI NextGen consortium use multi-ethnic population cohorts of iPSCs and differentiated hepatocyte-like cells, in combination with mouse models, to discover and validate functional DNA variants and genes at blood lipid- associated loci previously identified by genome-wide association studies.