RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 New insights into malaria susceptibility from the genomes of 17,000 individuals from Africa, Asia, and Oceania
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 535898
DO 10.1101/535898
A1 Malaria Genomic Epidemiology Network
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/02/04/535898.abstract
AB We conducted a genome-wide association study of host resistance to severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria in over 17,000 individuals from 11 malaria-endemic countries, undertaking a wide ranging analysis which identifies five replicable associations with genome-wide levels of evidence. Our findings include a newly implicated variant on chromosome 6 associated with risk of cerebral malaria, and the discovery of an erythroid-specific transcription start site underlying the association in ATP2B4. Previously reported HLA associations cannot be replicated in this dataset. We estimate substantial heritability of severe malaria (h2 ~ 23%), of which around 10% is explained by the currently identified associations. Our dataset will provide a major building block for future research on the genetic determinants of disease in these diverse human populations.