Genetic diversity is a predictor of mortality in humans
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Author
Bihlmeyer, Nathan A
Brody, Jennifer A
Smith, Albert Vernon
Lunetta, Kathryn L
Nalls, Mike
Smith, Jennifer A
Tanaka, Toshiko
Davies, Gail
Yu, Lei
Mirza, Saira Saeed
Teumer, Alexander
Coresh, Josef
Pankow, James S
Franceschini, Nora
Scaria, Anish
Oshima, Junko
Psaty, Bruce M
Gudnason, Vilmundur
Eiriksdottir, Gudny
Harris, Tamara B
Li, Hanyue
Karasik, David
Garcia, Melissa
Liu, Yongmei
Faul, Jessica D
Kardia, Sharon LR
Zhao, Wei
Ferrucci, Luigi
Allerhand, Michael
Liewald, David C
Redmond, Paul
Starr, John M
Evans, Denis A
Direk, Nese
Ikram, Mohammed Arfan
Uitterlinden, André
Homuth, Georg
Lorbeer, Roberto
Grabe, Hans J
Launer, Lenore
Murabito, Joanne M
Singleton, Andrew B
Weir, David R
Bandinelli, Stefania
Deary, Ian J
Bennett, David A
Tiemeier, Henning
Kocher, Thomas
Lumley, Thomas
Arking, Dan E
Note: Order does not necessarily reflect citation order of authors.
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https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-014-0159-7Metadata
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Bihlmeyer, N. A., J. A. Brody, A. V. Smith, K. L. Lunetta, M. Nalls, J. A. Smith, T. Tanaka, et al. 2014. “Genetic diversity is a predictor of mortality in humans.” BMC Genetics 15 (1): 159. doi:10.1186/s12863-014-0159-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12863-014-0159-7.Abstract
Background: It has been well-established, both by population genetics theory and direct observation in many organisms, that increased genetic diversity provides a survival advantage. However, given the limitations of both sample size and genome-wide metrics, this hypothesis has not been comprehensively tested in human populations. Moreover, the presence of numerous segregating small effect alleles that influence traits that directly impact health directly raises the question as to whether global measures of genomic variation are themselves associated with human health and disease. Results: We performed a meta-analysis of 17 cohorts followed prospectively, with a combined sample size of 46,716 individuals, including a total of 15,234 deaths. We find a significant association between increased heterozygosity and survival (P = 0.03). We estimate that within a single population, every standard deviation of heterozygosity an individual has over the mean decreases that person’s risk of death by 1.57%. Conclusions: This effect was consistent between European and African ancestry cohorts, men and women, and major causes of death (cancer and cardiovascular disease), demonstrating the broad positive impact of genomic diversity on human survival. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12863-014-0159-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.Other Sources
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4301661/pdf/Terms of Use
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http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:14065568
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