Genome-wide association study identifies chromosome 10q24.32 variants associated with arsenic metabolism and toxicity phenotypes in Bangladesh

• Published in: PLoS genetics 2012-02, Vol.8 (2), p.e1002522
• Main Authors: Pierce, Brandon L, Kibriya, Muhammad G, Tong, Lin, Jasmine, Farzana, Argos, Maria, Roy, Shantanu, Paul-Brutus, Rachelle, Rahaman, Ronald, Rakibuz-Zaman, Muhammad, Parvez, Faruque, Ahmed, Alauddin, Quasem, Iftekhar, Hore, Samar K, Alam, Shafiul, Islam, Tariqul, Slavkovich, Vesna, Gamble, Mary V, Yunus, Md, Rahman, Mahfuzar, Baron, John A, Graziano, Joseph H, Ahsan, Habibul
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acids; Arsenic; Arsenic - metabolism; Arsenic Poisoning - genetics; Arsenicals - metabolism; Bangladesh; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 10 - genetics; Drinking water; Environmental Exposure; Gene expression; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genomes; Humans; Medicine; Metabolism; Metabolites; Mortality; Phenotype; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Skin; Toxicity; Water Pollutants, Chemical - toxicity
• ISSN: 1553-7404; 1553-7390; 1553-7404
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002522

Arsenic contamination of drinking water is a major public health issue in many countries, increasing risk for a wide array of diseases, including cancer. There is inter-individual variation in arsenic metabolism efficiency and susceptibility to arsenic toxicity; however, the basis of this variation is not well understood. Here, we have performed the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of arsenic-related metabolism and toxicity phenotypes to improve our understanding of the mechanisms by which arsenic affects health. Using data on urinary arsenic metabolite concentrations and approximately 300,000 genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for 1,313 arsenic-exposed Bangladeshi individuals, we identified genome-wide significant association signals (P