Genome-wide association studies in a large Korean cohort identify quantitative trait loci for 36 traits and illuminate their genetic architectures

Yon Ho Jee, Ying Wang, Keum Ji Jung (), Ji-Young Lee, Heejin Kimm, Rui Duan, Alkes L. Price, Alicia R. Martin and Peter Kraft ()
Additional contact information
Yon Ho Jee: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Ying Wang: Massachusetts General Hospital
Keum Ji Jung: Yonsei University
Ji-Young Lee: Yonsei University
Heejin Kimm: Yonsei University
Rui Duan: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Alkes L. Price: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Alicia R. Martin: Massachusetts General Hospital
Peter Kraft: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have predominantly focused on European ancestry populations, limiting biological discoveries across diverse populations. Here we report GWAS findings from 153,950 individuals across 36 quantitative traits in the Korean Cancer Prevention Study-II (KCPS2) Biobank. We discovered 301 previously unreported genetic loci in KCPS2, including an association between thyroid-stimulating hormone and CD36. Meta-analysis with the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study, Biobank Japan, Taiwan Biobank, and UK Biobank identified 4588 loci that were not significant in any contributing GWAS. We describe differences in genetic architectures across these East Asian and European samples. We also highlight East Asian specific associations, including a known pleiotropic missense variant in ALDH2, which fine-mapping identified as a likely causal variant for multiple traits. Our findings provide insights into the genetic architecture of complex traits in East Asian populations and highlight how broadening the population diversity of GWAS samples can aid discovery.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59950-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59950-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59950-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().