PubMed ID: 29808027
Author(s): Tedja MS, Wojciechowski R, Hysi PG, Eriksson N, Furlotte NA, Verhoeven VJM, Iglesias AI, Meester-Smoor MA, Tompson SW, Fan Q, Khawaja AP, Cheng CY, Höhn R, Yamashiro K, Wenocur A, Grazal C, Haller T, Metspalu A, Wedenoja J, Jonas JB, Wang YX, Xie J, Mitchell P, Foster PJ, Klein BEK, Klein R, Paterson AD, Hosseini SM, Shah RL, Williams C, Teo YY, Tham YC, Gupta P, Zhao W, Shi Y, Saw WY, Tai ES, Sim XL, Huffman JE, Polašek O, Hayward C, Bencic G, Rudan I, Wilson JF; CREAM Consortium; 23andMe Research Team; UK Biobank Eye and Vision Consortium, Joshi PK, Tsujikawa A, Matsuda F, Whisenhunt KN, Zeller T, van der Spek PJ, Haak R, Meijers-Heijboer H, van Leeuwen EM, Iyengar SK, Lass JH, Hofman A, Rivadeneira F, Uitterlinden AG, Vingerling JR, Lehtimäki T, Raitakari OT, Biino G, Concas MP, Schwantes-An TH, Igo RP Jr, Cuellar-Partida G, Martin NG, Craig JE, Gharahkhani P, Williams KM, Nag A, Rahi JS, Cumberland PM, Delcourt C, Bellenguez C, Ried JS, Bergen AA, Meitinger T, Gieger C, Wong TY, Hewitt AW, Mackey DA, Simpson CL, Pfeiffer N, Pärssinen O, Baird PN, Vitart V, Amin N, van Duijn CM, Bailey-Wilson JE, Young TL, Saw SM, Stambolian D, MacGregor S, Guggenheim JA, Tung JY, Hammond CJ, Klaver CCW. Genome-wide association meta-analysis highlights light-induced signaling as a driver for refractive error. Nat Genet. 2018 Jun;50(6):834-848. doi: 10.1038/s41588-018-0127-7. Epub 2018 May 28. PMID 29808027
Journal: Nature Genetics, Volume 50, Issue 6, Jun 2018
Refractive errors, including myopia, are the most frequent eye disorders worldwide and an increasingly common cause of blindness. This genome-wide association meta-analysis in 160,420 participants and replication in 95,505 participants increased the number of established independent signals from 37 to 161 and showed high genetic correlation between Europeans and Asians (>0.78). Expression experiments and comprehensive in silico analyses identified retinal cell physiology and light processing as prominent mechanisms, and also identified functional contributions to refractive-error development in all cell types of the neurosensory retina, retinal pigment epithelium, vascular endothelium and extracellular matrix. Newly identified genes implicate novel mechanisms such as rod-and-cone bipolar synaptic neurotransmission, anterior-segment morphology and angiogenesis. Thirty-one loci resided in or near regions transcribing small RNAs, thus suggesting a role for post-transcriptional regulation. Our results support the notion that refractive errors are caused by a light-dependent retina-to-sclera signaling cascade and delineate potential pathobiological molecular drivers.