The genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes.
Fuchsberger C., Flannick J., Teslovich TM., Mahajan A., Agarwala V., Gaulton KJ., Ma C., Fontanillas P., Moutsianas L., McCarthy DJ., Rivas MA., Perry JRB., Sim X., Blackwell TW., Robertson NR., Rayner NW., Cingolani P., Locke AE., Tajes JF., Highland HM., Dupuis J., Chines PS., Lindgren CM., Hartl C., Jackson AU., Chen H., Huyghe JR., van de Bunt M., Pearson RD., Kumar A., Müller-Nurasyid M., Grarup N., Stringham HM., Gamazon ER., Lee J., Chen Y., Scott RA., Below JE., Chen P., Huang J., Go MJ., Stitzel ML., Pasko D., Parker SCJ., Varga TV., Green T., Beer NL., Day-Williams AG., Ferreira T., Fingerlin T., Horikoshi M., Hu C., Huh I., Ikram MK., Kim B-J., Kim Y., Kim YJ., Kwon M-S., Lee J., Lee S., Lin K-H., Maxwell TJ., Nagai Y., Wang X., Welch RP., Yoon J., Zhang W., Barzilai N., Voight BF., Han B-G., Jenkinson CP., Kuulasmaa T., Kuusisto J., Manning A., Ng MCY., Palmer ND., Balkau B., Stančáková A., Abboud HE., Boeing H., Giedraitis V., Prabhakaran D., Gottesman O., Scott J., Carey J., Kwan P., Grant G., Smith JD., Neale BM., Purcell S., Butterworth AS., Howson JMM., Lee HM., Lu Y., Kwak S-H., Zhao W., Danesh J., Lam VKL., Park KS., Saleheen D., So WY., Tam CHT., Afzal U., Aguilar D., Arya R., Aung T., Chan E., Navarro C., Cheng C-Y., Palli D., Correa A., Curran JE., Rybin D., Farook VS., Fowler SP., Freedman BI., Griswold M., Hale DE., Hicks PJ., Khor C-C., Kumar S., Lehne B., Thuillier D., Lim WY., Liu J., van der Schouw YT., Loh M., Musani SK., Puppala S., Scott WR., Yengo L., Tan S-T., Taylor HA., Thameem F., Wilson G., Wong TY., Njølstad PR., Levy JC., Mangino M., Bonnycastle LL., Schwarzmayr T., Fadista J., Surdulescu GL., Herder C., Groves CJ., Wieland T., Bork-Jensen J., Brandslund I., Christensen C., Koistinen HA., Doney ASF., Kinnunen L., Esko T., Farmer AJ., Hakaste L., Hodgkiss D., Kravic J., Lyssenko V., Hollensted M., Jørgensen ME., Jørgensen T., Ladenvall C., Justesen JM., Käräjämäki A., Kriebel J., Rathmann W., Lannfelt L., Lauritzen T., Narisu N., Linneberg A., Melander O., Milani L., Neville M., Orho-Melander M., Qi L., Qi Q., Roden M., Rolandsson O., Swift A., Rosengren AH., Stirrups K., Wood AR., Mihailov E., Blancher C., Carneiro MO., Maguire J., Poplin R., Shakir K., Fennell T., DePristo M., de Angelis MH., Deloukas P., Gjesing AP., Jun G., Nilsson P., Murphy J., Onofrio R., Thorand B., Hansen T., Meisinger C., Hu FB., Isomaa B., Karpe F., Liang L., Peters A., Huth C., O'Rahilly SP., Palmer CNA., Pedersen O., Rauramaa R., Tuomilehto J., Salomaa V., Watanabe RM., Syvänen A-C., Bergman RN., Bharadwaj D., Bottinger EP., Cho YS., Chandak GR., Chan JCN., Chia KS., Daly MJ., Ebrahim SB., Langenberg C., Elliott P., Jablonski KA., Lehman DM., Jia W., Ma RCW., Pollin TI., Sandhu M., Tandon N., Froguel P., Barroso I., Teo YY., Zeggini E., Loos RJF., Small KS., Ried JS., DeFronzo RA., Grallert H., Glaser B., Metspalu A., Wareham NJ., Walker M., Banks E., Gieger C., Ingelsson E., Im HK., Illig T., Franks PW., Buck G., Trakalo J., Buck D., Prokopenko I., Mägi R., Lind L., Farjoun Y., Owen KR., Gloyn AL., Strauch K., Tuomi T., Kooner JS., Lee J-Y., Park T., Donnelly P., Morris AD., Hattersley AT., Bowden DW., Collins FS., Atzmon G., Chambers JC., Spector TD., Laakso M., Strom TM., Bell GI., Blangero J., Duggirala R., Tai ES., McVean G., Hanis CL., Wilson JG., Seielstad M., Frayling TM., Meigs JB., Cox NJ., Sladek R., Lander ES., Gabriel S., Burtt NP., Mohlke KL., Meitinger T., Groop L., Abecasis G., Florez JC., Scott LJ., Morris AP., Kang HM., Boehnke M., Altshuler D., McCarthy MI.
The genetic architecture of common traits, including the number, frequency, and effect sizes of inherited variants that contribute to individual risk, has been long debated. Genome-wide association studies have identified scores of common variants associated with type 2 diabetes, but in aggregate, these explain only a fraction of the heritability of this disease. Here, to test the hypothesis that lower-frequency variants explain much of the remainder, the GoT2D and T2D-GENES consortia performed whole-genome sequencing in 2,657 European individuals with and without diabetes, and exome sequencing in 12,940 individuals from five ancestry groups. To increase statistical power, we expanded the sample size via genotyping and imputation in a further 111,548 subjects. Variants associated with type 2 diabetes after sequencing were overwhelmingly common and most fell within regions previously identified by genome-wide association studies. Comprehensive enumeration of sequence variation is necessary to identify functional alleles that provide important clues to disease pathophysiology, but large-scale sequencing does not support the idea that lower-frequency variants have a major role in predisposition to type 2 diabetes.