The transferability of lipid loci across African, Asian and European cohorts

Abstract The majority of genetic studies for cardiometabolic traits were based on samples with European ancestry. Our aim was to assess whether genetic variants associated with blood lipids, a major risk factor for CVD, are shared across different populations. We compared genetic associations with lipids between samples from Uganda (N=6,407), China (N=21,295), Japan (N=162,255), the UK (N=9,961) and Greece (N=3,586). Using simulations, we established trans-ethnic colocalization as a method to distinguish shared from population-specific trait loci. Genetic correlations for HDL, LDL and triglycerides between European ancestry and Asian cohorts were close to 1. A polygenic score based on established LDL-cholesterol-associated loci from European discovery samples had consistent effects on serum levels in samples from the UK, Uganda and Greek population isolates (r=0.23 to 0.28, p