Transferability and fine-mapping of glucose and insulin quantitative trait loci across populations: CARe, the Candidate Gene Association Resource.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Hyperglycaemia disproportionately affects African-Americans (AfAs). We tested the transferability of 18 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with glycaemic traits identified in European ancestry (EuA) populations in 5,984 non-diabetic AfAs.

METHODS: We meta-analysed SNP associations with fasting glucose (FG) or insulin (FI) in AfAs from five cohorts in the Candidate Gene Association Resource. We: (1) calculated allele frequency differences, variations in linkage disequilibrium (LD), fixation indices (F(st)s) and integrated haplotype scores (iHSs); (2) tested EuA SNPs in AfAs; and (3) interrogated within ± 250 kb around each EuA SNP in AfAs.

RESULTS: Allele frequency differences ranged from 0.6% to 54%. F(st) exceeded 0.15 at 6/16 loci, indicating modest population differentiation. All iHSs were

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Few glycaemic SNPs showed strict evidence of transferability from EuA to AfAs. Four loci were significantly associated in both AfAs and those with EuA after accounting for varying LD across ancestral groups, with new signals emerging to aid fine-mapping.