Premium
Association between SNP Heterozygosity and Quantitative Traits in the Framingham Heart Study
Author(s) -
Govindaraju Didahally R.,
Larson Martin G.,
Yin Xiaoyan,
Benjamin Emelia J.,
Rao Marepalli B.,
Vasan Ramachandran S.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
annals of human genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.537
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1469-1809
pISSN - 0003-4800
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-1809.2009.00514.x
Subject(s) - loss of heterozygosity , biology , framingham heart study , snp , genetics , genome wide association study , quantitative trait locus , single nucleotide polymorphism , genetic association , evolutionary biology , allele , genotype , framingham risk score , gene , medicine , disease
Summary Associations between multilocus heterozygosity and fitness traits, also termed heterozygosity and fitness correlations (HFCs), have been reported in numerous organisms. These studies, in general, indicate a positive relationship between heterozygosity and fitness traits. We studied the association between genome‐wide heterozygosity at 706 non‐synonymous and synonymous SNPs and 19 quantitative traits, including morphological, biochemical and fitness traits in the Framingham Heart Study. Statistically significant association was found between heterozygosity and systolic and diastolic blood pressures as well as left ventricular diameter and wall thickness. These results suggest that heterozygosity may be associated with traits, such as blood pressure that closely track environmental variations. Balancing selection may be operating in the maintenance of heterozygosity and the major components of blood pressure and hypertension. Genome wide SNP heterozygosity may be used to understand the phenomenon of dominance as well as the evolutionary basis of many quantitative traits in humans.