The limits of normal approximation for adult height

Adult height inspired the first biometrical and quantitative genetic studies and is a test-case trait for understanding heritability. The studies of height led to formulation of the classical polygenic model, that has a profound influence on the way we view and analyse complex traits. An essential part of the classical model is an assumption of additivity of effects and normality of the distribution of the residuals. However, it may be expected that the normal approximation will become insufficient in bigger studies. Here, we demonstrate that when the height of hundreds of thousands of individuals is analysed, the model complexity needs to be increased to include non-additive interactions between sex, environment and genes. Alternatively, the use of log-normal approximation allowed us to still use the additive effects model. These findings are important for future genetic and methodologic studies that make use of adult height as an exemplar trait

Microbiome Responses to an Uncontrolled Short-Term Diet Intervention in the Frame of the Citizen Science Project

Personalized nutrition is of increasing interest to individuals actively monitoring their health. The relations between the duration of diet intervention and the effects on gut microbiota have yet to be elucidated. Here we examined the associations of short-term dietary changes, long-term dietary habits and lifestyle with gut microbiota. Stool samples from 248 citizen-science volunteers were collected before and after a self-reported 2-week personalized diet intervention, then analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing. Considerable correlations between long-term dietary habits and gut community structure were detected. A higher intake of vegetables and fruits was associated with increased levels of butyrate-producing Clostridiales and higher community richness. A paired comparison of the metagenomes before and after the 2-week intervention showed that even a brief, uncontrolled intervention produced profound changes in community structure: resulting in decreased levels of Bacteroidaceae, Porphyromonadaceae and Rikenellaceae families and decreased alpha-diversity coupled with an increase of Methanobrevibacter, Bifidobacterium, Clostridium and butyrate-producing Lachnospiraceae- as well as the prevalence of a permatype (a bootstrapping-based variation of enterotype) associated with a higher diversity of diet. The response of microbiota to the intervention was dependent on the initial microbiota state. These findings pave the way for the development of an individualized diet.</p

Biosafety Analysis of Metabolites of <i>Streptomyces tauricus</i> Strain 19/97 M, Promising for the Production of Biological Products

A biosafety study was carried out concerning the metabolites of Streptomyces tauricus strain 19/97 M. This strain is a promising producer of biological preparations and shows antagonistic properties against Fusarium fungi, which cause Fusarium wilt disease. The strain has a pronounced biological activity against conifers, cereals and legumes. The treatment of planting material reduces infections, increases germination and furthers plant productivity. Using metabolites, we understood the culture liquid separated by filtration after the cultivation of the strain. Animals of different taxonomic affiliations were used as test objects: (CBA × C57BI/6) F1 hybrid mice (Mus musculus) (warm-blooded organisms), Daphnia magna Straus (planktonic crustaceans) and the unicellular alga Chlorella vulgaris Beijer. In the study, we were guided by the test standards for acute oral toxicity and irritation to the skin, mucous membranes of the eyes and inhalation toxicity. The research results showed that the metabolites of the strain are not acutely toxic to organisms of different taxonomic levels. The metabolites of the strain do not have an irritating effect on the skin and mucous membranes of warm-blooded animals. Based on the studies carried out, metabolites can be used for creating a fungicidal biological preparation

Varicose veins of lower extremities: Insights from the first large-scale genetic study.

Varicose veins of lower extremities (VVs) are a common multifactorial vascular disease. Genetic factors underlying VVs development remain largely unknown. Here we report the first large-scale study of VVs performed on a freely available genetic data of 408,455 European-ancestry individuals. We identified the 12 reliably associated loci that explain 13% of the SNP-based heritability, and prioritized the most likely causal genes CASZ1, PIEZO1, PPP3R1, EBF1, STIM2, HFE, GATA2, NFATC2, and SOX9. VVs-associated variants within these loci exhibited pleiotropic effects on several phenotypes including blood pressure/hypertension and blood cell traits. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed gene categories related to abnormal vasculogenesis. Genetic correlation analysis confirmed known epidemiological associations between VVs and deep venous thrombosis, weight, rough labor, and standing job, and found a genetic overlap with multiple traits that have not been previously suspected to share common genetic background with VVs. These traits included educational attainment, fluid intelligence and prospective memory scores, walking pace (negative correlation with VVs), smoking, height, number of operations, pain, and gonarthrosis (positive correlation with VVs). Finally, Mendelian randomization analysis provided evidence for causal effects of plasma levels of MICB and CD209 proteins, and anthropometric traits such as waist and hip circumference, height, weight, and both fat and fat-free mass. Our results provide novel insight into both VVs genetics and etiology. The revealed genes and proteins can be considered as good candidates for follow-up functional studies and might be of interest as potential drug targets

Genome-wide association summary statistics for varicose veins of lower extremities

<p>The dataset contains summary statistics for the discovery and the replication stages of the large-scale genome-wide associations study for varicose veins of lower extremities. The discovery stage was based on genetic association data provided by the Neale Lab (<a>http://www.nealelab.is/</a>) for 337,199 UK biobank individuals. Phenotype “varicose veins of lower extremities” was defined based on International Classification of Disease (ICD-10) billing code “I83” present in the electronic patient record. Data were adjusted for two potential confounders – body mass index and deep venous thrombosis. A replication cohort (N=71,256) was generated by means of reverse meta-analysis of two overlapping datasets: genetic association data for 408,455 UK Biobank participants provided by the Gene ATLAS database (<a>http://geneatlas.roslin.ed.ac.uk/</a>), and the above mentioned data provided by the Neale Lab.</p> <p>The data are provided on an "AS-IS" basis, without warranty of any type, expressed or implied, including but not limited to any warranty as to their performance, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. If investigators use these data, any and all consequences are entirely their responsibility. By downloading and using these data, you agree that you will cite the appropriate publication in any communications or publications arising directly or indirectly from these data; for utilisation of data available prior to publication, you agree to respect the requested responsibilities of resource users under 2003 Fort Lauderdale principles; you agree that you will never attempt to identify any participant. </p> <p><strong>When using downloaded data, please cite corresponding paper and this repository:</strong></p> <ol> <li> <p>Shadrina A.S. et al. Varicose veins of lower extremities: insights from the first large-scale genetic study. (Submitted)</p> </li> <li>Alexandra S. Shadrina, Sodbo Zh. Sharapov, Tatiana I. Shashkova, & Yakov A. Tsepilov. (2018). Genome-wide association summary statistics for varicose veins of lower extremities (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1323484</li> </ol> <p><strong>Funding:</strong></p> <p>The work of ASS was supported by the Russian Science Foundation [Project No 17-75-20223]. <br> The work of YAT was supported by the Russian Ministry of Science and Education under the 5-100 Excellence Programme. <br> The work of SZS was supported by the Institute of Cytology and Genetics [Project No 0324-2018-0017].</p> <p><strong>Column headers - discovery</strong></p> <ol> <li>SNP: SNP rsID</li> <li>b: effect size of effect allele</li> <li>se: standard error of effect size</li> <li>chi2: T^2 value of effect allele</li> <li>Pval: P-value of association (without GC correction)</li> <li>N: sample size</li> <li>Chr: chromosome</li> <li>Pos: position (GRCh37 build)</li> <li>A1: effect allele (coded as "1")</li> <li>A2: reference allele (coded as "0")</li> </ol> <p><strong>Column headers - replication</strong></p> <ol> <li>SNP: SNP rsID</li> <li>A1: effect allele (coded as "1")</li> <li>A2: reference allele (coded as "0")</li> <li>N: Total sample size</li> <li>Z: Z-value of effect allele</li> <li>P: P-value of association (without GC correction)</li> </ol