Novel genetic loci associated with hippocampal volume

Derrek P. Hibar, Hieab H. H. Adams, Neda Jahanshad, Ganesh Chauhan, Jason L. Stein, Edith Hofer, Miguel E. Renteria, Joshua C. Bis, Alejandro Arias-Vasquez, M. Kamran Ikram*, Sylvane Desrivieres, Meike W. Vernooij, Lucija Abramovic, Saud Alhusaini, Najaf Amin, Micael Andersson, Konstantinos Arfanakis, Benjamin S. Aribisala, Nicola J. Armstrong, Lavinia AthanasiuTomas Axelsson, Ashley H. Beecham, Alexa Beiser, Manon Bernard, Susan H. Blanton, Marc M. Bohlken, Marco P. Boks, Janita Bralten, Adam M. Brickman, Owen Carmichael, M. Mallar Chakravarty, Qiang Chen, Christopher R. K. Ching, Vincent Chouraki, Gabriel Cuellar-Partida, Fabrice Crivello, Anouk Den Braber, Nhat Trung Doan, Stefan Ehrlich, Sudheer Giddaluru, Aaron L. Goldman, Rebecca F. Gottesman, Oliver Grimm, Michael E. Griswold, Tulio Guadalupe, Boris A. Gutman, Johanna Hass, Unn K. Haukvik, David Hoehn, Han G. Brunner, Author collaboration

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The hippocampal formation is a brain structure integrally involved in episodic memory, spatial navigation, cognition and stress responsiveness. Structural abnormalities in hippocampal volume and shape are found in several common neuropsychiatric disorders. To identify the genetic underpinnings of hippocampal structure here we perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 33,536 individuals and discover six independent loci significantly associated with hippocampal volume, four of them novel. Of the novel loci, three lie within genes (ASTN2, DPP4 and MAST4) and one is found 200 kb upstream of SHH. A hippocampal subfield analysis shows that a locus within the MSRB3 gene shows evidence of a localized effect along the dentate gyrus, subiculum, CA1 and fissure. Further, we show that genetic variants associated with decreased hippocampal volume are also associated with increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (r(g) = -0.155). Our findings suggest novel biological pathways through which human genetic variation influences hippocampal volume and risk for neuropsychiatric illness.
Original languageEnglish
Article number13624
Number of pages12
JournalNature Communications
Volume8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Jan 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Genome-wide association
  • Temporal-lobe epilepsy
  • Susceptibility loci
  • Alzheimers-disease
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Common variants
  • Brain-regions
  • Memory
  • Subfields
  • Metaanalysis

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