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Browsing by Author "Raffield, Laura M."
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Item A framework for detecting noncoding rare-variant associations of large-scale whole-genome sequencing studies(Springer Nature, 2022) Li, Zilin; Li, Xihao; Zhou, Hufeng; Gaynor, Sheila M.; Selvaraj, Margaret Sunitha; Arapoglou, Theodore; Quick, Corbin; Liu, Yaowu; Chen, Han; Sun, Ryan; Dey, Rounak; Arnett, Donna K.; Auer, Paul L.; Bielak, Lawrence F.; Bis, Joshua C.; Blackwell, Thomas W.; Blangero, John; Boerwinkle, Eric; Bowden, Donald W.; Brody, Jennifer A.; Cade, Brian E.; Conomos, Matthew P.; Correa, Adolfo; Cupples, L. Adrienne; Curran, Joanne E.; de Vries, Paul S.; Duggirala, Ravindranath; Franceschini, Nora; Freedman, Barry I.; Göring, Harald H. H.; Guo, Xiuqing; Kalyani, Rita R.; Kooperberg, Charles; Kral, Brian G.; Lange, Leslie A.; Lin, Bridget M.; Manichaikul, Ani; Manning, Alisa K.; Martin, Lisa W.; Mathias, Rasika A.; Meigs, James B.; Mitchell, Braxton D.; Montasser, May E.; Morrison, Alanna C.; Naseri, Take; O'Connell, Jeffrey R.; Palmer, Nicholette D.; Peyser, Patricia A.; Psaty, Bruce M.; Raffield, Laura M.; Redline, Susan; Reiner, Alexander P.; Reupena, Muagututi'a Sefuiva; Rice, Kenneth M.; Rich, Stephen S.; Smith, Jennifer A.; Taylor, Kent D.; Taub, Margaret A.; Vasan, Ramachandran S.; Weeks, Daniel E.; Wilson, James G.; Yanek, Lisa R.; Zhao, Wei; NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium; TOPMed Lipids Working Group; Rotter, Jerome I.; Willer, Cristen J.; Natarajan, Pradeep; Peloso, Gina M.; Lin, Xihong; Biostatistics and Health Data Science, School of MedicineLarge-scale whole-genome sequencing studies have enabled analysis of noncoding rare-variant (RV) associations with complex human diseases and traits. Variant-set analysis is a powerful approach to study RV association. However, existing methods have limited ability in analyzing the noncoding genome. We propose a computationally efficient and robust noncoding RV association detection framework, STAARpipeline, to automatically annotate a whole-genome sequencing study and perform flexible noncoding RV association analysis, including gene-centric analysis and fixed window-based and dynamic window-based non-gene-centric analysis by incorporating variant functional annotations. In gene-centric analysis, STAARpipeline uses STAAR to group noncoding variants based on functional categories of genes and incorporate multiple functional annotations. In non-gene-centric analysis, STAARpipeline uses SCANG-STAAR to incorporate dynamic window sizes and multiple functional annotations. We apply STAARpipeline to identify noncoding RV sets associated with four lipid traits in 21,015 discovery samples from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program and replicate several of them in an additional 9,123 TOPMed samples. We also analyze five non-lipid TOPMed traits.Item EndoPRS: Incorporating Endophenotype Information to Improve Polygenic Risk Scores for Clinical Endpoints(medRxiv, 2024-05-24) Kharitonova, Elena V.; Sun, Quan; Ockerman, Frank; Chen, Brian; Zhou, Laura Y.; Cao, Hongyuan; Mathias, Rasika A.; Auer, Paul L.; Ober, Carole; Raffield, Laura M.; Reiner, Alexander P.; Cox, Nancy J.; Kelada, Samir; Tao, Ran; Li, Yun; Biostatistics and Health Data Science, School of MedicinePolygenic risk score (PRS) prediction of complex diseases can be improved by leveraging related phenotypes. This has motivated the development of several multi-trait PRS methods that jointly model information from genetically correlated traits. However, these methods do not account for vertical pleiotropy between traits, in which one trait acts as a mediator for another. Here, we introduce endoPRS, a weighted lasso model that incorporates information from relevant endophenotypes to improve disease risk prediction without making assumptions about the genetic architecture underlying the endophenotype-disease relationship. Through extensive simulation analysis, we demonstrate the robustness of endoPRS in a variety of complex genetic frameworks. We also apply endoPRS to predict the risk of childhood onset asthma in UK Biobank by leveraging a paired GWAS of eosinophil count, a relevant endophenotype. We find that endoPRS significantly improves prediction compared to many existing PRS methods, including multi-trait PRS methods, MTAG and wMT-BLUP, which suggests advantages of endoPRS in real-life clinical settings.Item Impact of Rare and Common Genetic Variants on Diabetes Diagnosis by Hemoglobin A1c in Multi-Ancestry Cohorts: The Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine Program(Elsevier, 2019-09-26) Sarnowski, Chloé; Leong, Aaron; Raffield, Laura M.; Wu, Peitao; de Vries, Paul S.; DiCorpo, Daniel; Guo, Xiuqing; Xu, Huichun; Liu, Yongmei; Zheng, Xiuwen; Hu, Yao; Brody, Jennifer A.; Goodarzi, Mark O.; Hidalgo, Bertha A.; Highland, Heather M.; Jain, Deepti; Liu, Ching-Ti; Naik, Rakhi P.; O’Connell, Jeffrey R.; Perry, James A.; Porneala, Bianca C.; Selvin, Elizabeth; Wessel, Jennifer; Psaty, Bruce M.; Curran, Joanne E.; Peralta, Juan M.; Blangero, John; Kooperberg, Charles; Mathias, Rasika; Johnson, Andrew D.; Reiner, Alexander P.; Mitchell, Braxton D.; Cupples, L. Adrienne; Vasan, Ramachandran S.; Correa, Adolfo; Morrison, Alanna C.; Boerwinkle, Eric; Rotter, Jerome I.; Rich, Stephen S.; Manning, Alisa K.; Dupuis, Josée; Meigs, James B.; TOPMed Diabetes Working Group; TOPMed Hematology Working Group; TOPMed Hemostasis Working Group; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute TOPMed Consortium; Epidemiology, School of Public HealthHemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is widely used to diagnose diabetes and assess glycemic control in individuals with diabetes. However, nonglycemic determinants, including genetic variation, may influence how accurately HbA1c reflects underlying glycemia. Analyzing the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) sequence data in 10,338 individuals from five studies and four ancestries (6,158 Europeans, 3,123 African-Americans, 650 Hispanics, and 407 East Asians), we confirmed five regions associated with HbA1c (GCK in Europeans and African-Americans, HK1 in Europeans and Hispanics, FN3K and/or FN3KRP in Europeans, and G6PD in African-Americans and Hispanics) and we identified an African-ancestry-specific low-frequency variant (rs1039215 in HBG2 and HBE1, minor allele frequency (MAF) = 0.03). The most associated G6PD variant (rs1050828-T, p.Val98Met, MAF = 12% in African-Americans, MAF = 2% in Hispanics) lowered HbA1c (−0.88% in hemizygous males, −0.34% in heterozygous females) and explained 23% of HbA1c variance in African-Americans and 4% in Hispanics. Additionally, we identified a rare distinct G6PD coding variant (rs76723693, p.Leu353Pro, MAF = 0.5%; −0.98% in hemizygous males, −0.46% in heterozygous females) and detected significant association with HbA1c when aggregating rare missense variants in G6PD. We observed similar magnitude and direction of effects for rs1039215 (HBG2) and rs76723693 (G6PD) in the two largest TOPMed African American cohorts, and we replicated the rs76723693 association in the UK Biobank African-ancestry participants. These variants in G6PD and HBG2 were monomorphic in the European and Asian samples. African or Hispanic ancestry individuals carrying G6PD variants may be underdiagnosed for diabetes when screened with HbA1c. Thus, assessment of these variants should be considered for incorporation into precision medicine approaches for diabetes diagnosis.Item Investigating Gene-Diet Interactions Impacting the Association Between Macronutrient Intake and Glycemic Traits(American Diabetes Association, 2023) Westerman, Kenneth E.; Walker, Maura E.; Gaynor, Sheila M.; Wessel, Jennifer; DiCorpo, Daniel; Ma, Jiantao; Alonso, Alvaro; Aslibekyan, Stella; Baldridge, Abigail S.; Bertoni, Alain G.; Biggs, Mary L.; Brody, Jennifer A.; Chen, Yii-Der Ida; Dupuis, Joseé; Goodarzi, Mark O.; Guo, Xiuqing; Hasbani, Natalie R.; Heath, Adam; Hidalgo, Bertha; Irvin, Marguerite R.; Johnson, W. Craig; Kalyani, Rita R.; Lange, Leslie; Lemaitre, Rozenn N.; Liu, Ching-Ti; Liu, Simin; Moon, Jee-Young; Nassir, Rami; Pankow, James S.; Pettinger, Mary; Raffield, Laura M.; Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J.; Selvin, Elizabeth; Senn, Mackenzie K.; Shadyab, Aladdin H.; Smith, Albert V.; Smith, Nicholas L.; Steffen, Lyn; Talegakwar, Sameera; Taylor, Kent D.; de Vries, Paul S.; Wilson, James G.; Wood, Alexis C.; Yanek, Lisa R.; Yao, Jie; Zheng, Yinan; Boerwinkle, Eric; Morrison, Alanna C.; Fornage, Miriam; Russell, Tracy P.; Psaty, Bruce M.; Levy, Daniel; Heard-Costa, Nancy L.; Ramachandran, Vasan S.; Mathias, Rasika A.; Arnett, Donna K.; Kaplan, Robert; North, Kari E.; Correa, Adolfo; Carson, April; Rotter, Jerome I.; Rich, Stephen S.; Manson, JoAnn E.; Reiner, Alexander P.; Kooperberg, Charles; Florez, Jose C.; Meigs, James B.; Merino, Jordi; Tobias, Deirdre K.; Chen, Han; Manning, Alisa K.; Epidemiology, School of Public HealthFew studies have demonstrated reproducible gene-diet interactions (GDIs) impacting metabolic disease risk factors, likely due in part to measurement error in dietary intake estimation and insufficient capture of rare genetic variation. We aimed to identify GDIs across the genetic frequency spectrum impacting the macronutrient-glycemia relationship in genetically and culturally diverse cohorts. We analyzed 33,187 participants free of diabetes from 10 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine program cohorts with whole-genome sequencing, self-reported diet, and glycemic trait data. We fit cohort-specific, multivariable-adjusted linear mixed models for the effect of diet, modeled as an isocaloric substitution of carbohydrate for fat, and its interactions with common and rare variants genome-wide. In main effect meta-analyses, participants consuming more carbohydrate had modestly lower glycemic trait values (e.g., for glycated hemoglobin [HbA1c], -0.013% HbA1c/250 kcal substitution). In GDI meta-analyses, a common African ancestry-enriched variant (rs79762542) reached study-wide significance and replicated in the UK Biobank cohort, indicating a negative carbohydrate-HbA1c association among major allele homozygotes only. Simulations revealed that >150,000 samples may be necessary to identify similar macronutrient GDIs under realistic assumptions about effect size and measurement error. These results generate hypotheses for further exploration of modifiable metabolic disease risk in additional cohorts with African ancestry. Article highlights: We aimed to identify genetic modifiers of the dietary macronutrient-glycemia relationship using whole-genome sequence data from 10 Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine program cohorts. Substitution models indicated a modest reduction in glycemia associated with an increase in dietary carbohydrate at the expense of fat. Genome-wide interaction analysis identified one African ancestry-enriched variant near the FRAS1 gene that may interact with macronutrient intake to influence hemoglobin A1c. Simulation-based power calculations accounting for measurement error suggested that substantially larger sample sizes may be necessary to discover further gene-macronutrient interactions.Item Powerful, scalable and resource-efficient meta-analysis of rare variant associations in large whole genome sequencing studies(Springer Nature, 2023) Li, Xihao; Quick, Corbin; Zhou, Hufeng; Gaynor, Sheila M.; Liu, Yaowu; Chen, Han; Selvaraj, Margaret Sunitha; Sun, Ryan; Dey, Rounak; Arnett, Donna K.; Bielak, Lawrence F.; Bis, Joshua C.; Blangero, John; Boerwinkle, Eric; Bowden, Donald W.; Brody, Jennifer A.; Cade, Brian E.; Correa, Adolfo; Cupples, L. Adrienne; Curran, Joanne E.; de Vries, Paul S.; Duggirala, Ravindranath; Freedman, Barry I.; Göring, Harald H. H.; Guo, Xiuqing; Haessler, Jeffrey; Kalyani, Rita R.; Kooperberg, Charles; Kral, Brian G.; Lange, Leslie A.; Manichaikul, Ani; Martin, Lisa W.; McGarvey, Stephen T.; Mitchell, Braxton D.; Montasser, May E.; Morrison, Alanna C.; Naseri, Take; O'Connell, Jeffrey R.; Palmer, Nicholette D.; Peyser, Patricia A.; Psaty, Bruce M.; Raffield, Laura M.; Redline, Susan; Reiner, Alexander P.; Reupena, Muagututi'a Sefuiva; Rice, Kenneth M.; Rich, Stephen S.; Sitlani, Colleen M.; Smith, Jennifer A.; Taylor, Kent D.; Vasan, Ramachandran S.; Willer, Cristen J.; Wilson, James G.; Yanek, Lisa R.; Zhao, Wei; NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium; TOPMed Lipids Working Group; Rotter, Jerome I.; Natarajan, Pradeep; Peloso, Gina M.; Li, Zilin; Lin, Xihong; Biostatistics and Health Data Science, School of MedicineMeta-analysis of whole genome sequencing/whole exome sequencing (WGS/WES) studies provides an attractive solution to the problem of collecting large sample sizes for discovering rare variants associated with complex phenotypes. Existing rare variant meta-analysis approaches are not scalable to biobank-scale WGS data. Here we present MetaSTAAR, a powerful and resource-efficient rare variant meta-analysis framework for large-scale WGS/WES studies. MetaSTAAR accounts for relatedness and population structure, can analyze both quantitative and dichotomous traits and boosts the power of rare variant tests by incorporating multiple variant functional annotations. Through meta-analysis of four lipid traits in 30,138 ancestrally diverse samples from 14 studies of the Trans Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program, we show that MetaSTAAR performs rare variant meta-analysis at scale and produces results comparable to using pooled data. Additionally, we identified several conditionally significant rare variant associations with lipid traits. We further demonstrate that MetaSTAAR is scalable to biobank-scale cohorts through meta-analysis of TOPMed WGS data and UK Biobank WES data of ~200,000 samples.Item Rare variants in long non-coding RNAs are associated with blood lipid levels in the TOPMed Whole Genome Sequencing Study(medRxiv, 2023-06-29) Wang, Yuxuan; Selvaraj, Margaret Sunitha; Li, Xihao; Li, Zilin; Holdcraft, Jacob A.; Arnett, Donna K.; Bis, Joshua C.; Blangero, John; Boerwinkle, Eric; Bowden, Donald W.; Cade, Brian E.; Carlson, Jenna C.; Carson, April P.; Chen, Yii-Der Ida; Curran, Joanne E.; de Vries, Paul S.; Dutcher, Susan K.; Ellinor, Patrick T.; Floyd, James S.; Fornage, Myriam; Freedman, Barry I.; Gabriel, Stacey; Germer, Soren; Gibbs, Richard A.; Guo, Xiuqing; He, Jiang; Heard-Costa, Nancy; Hildalgo, Bertha; Hou, Lifang; Irvin, Marguerite R.; Joehanes, Roby; Kaplan, Robert C.; Kardia, Sharon Lr.; Kelly, Tanika N.; Kim, Ryan; Kooperberg, Charles; Kral, Brian G.; Levy, Daniel; Li, Changwei; Liu, Chunyu; Lloyd-Jone, Don; Loos, Ruth Jf.; Mahaney, Michael C.; Martin, Lisa W.; Mathias, Rasika A.; Minster, Ryan L.; Mitchell, Braxton D.; Montasser, May E.; Morrison, Alanna C.; Murabito, Joanne M.; Naseri, Take; O'Connell, Jeffrey R.; Palmer, Nicholette D.; Preuss, Michael H.; Psaty, Bruce M.; Raffield, Laura M.; Rao, Dabeeru C.; Redline, Susan; Reiner, Alexander P.; Rich, Stephen S.; Ruepena, Muagututi'a Sefuiva; Sheu, Wayne H-H; Smith, Jennifer A.; Smith, Albert; Tiwari, Hemant K.; Tsai, Michael Y.; Viaud-Martinez, Karine A.; Wang, Zhe; Yanek, Lisa R.; Zhao, Wei; NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium; Rotter, Jerome I.; Lin, Xihong; Natarajan, Pradeep; Peloso, Gina M.; Biostatistics and Health Data Science, School of MedicineLong non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are known to perform important regulatory functions. Large-scale whole genome sequencing (WGS) studies and new statistical methods for variant set tests now provide an opportunity to assess the associations between rare variants in lncRNA genes and complex traits across the genome. In this study, we used high-coverage WGS from 66,329 participants of diverse ancestries with blood lipid levels (LDL-C, HDL-C, TC, and TG) in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program to investigate the role of lncRNAs in lipid variability. We aggregated rare variants for 165,375 lncRNA genes based on their genomic locations and conducted rare variant aggregate association tests using the STAAR (variant-Set Test for Association using Annotation infoRmation) framework. We performed STAAR conditional analysis adjusting for common variants in known lipid GWAS loci and rare coding variants in nearby protein coding genes. Our analyses revealed 83 rare lncRNA variant sets significantly associated with blood lipid levels, all of which were located in known lipid GWAS loci (in a ±500 kb window of a Global Lipids Genetics Consortium index variant). Notably, 61 out of 83 signals (73%) were conditionally independent of common regulatory variations and rare protein coding variations at the same loci. We replicated 34 out of 61 (56%) conditionally independent associations using the independent UK Biobank WGS data. Our results expand the genetic architecture of blood lipids to rare variants in lncRNA, implicating new therapeutic opportunities.Item Whole Genome Sequence Association Analysis of Fasting Glucose and Fasting Insulin Levels in Diverse Cohorts from the NHLBI TOPMed Program(Springer Nature, 2022-07-28) DiCorpo, Daniel; Gaynor, Sheila M.; Russell, Emily M.; Westerman, Kenneth E.; Raffield, Laura M.; Majarian, Timothy D.; Wu, Peitao; Sarnowski, Chloé; Highland, Heather M.; Jackson, Anne; Hasbani, Natalie R.; de Vries, Paul S.; Brody, Jennifer A.; Hidalgo, Bertha; Guo, Xiuqing; Perry, James A.; O’Connell, Jeffrey R.; Lent, Samantha; Montasser, May E.; Cade, Brian E.; Jain, Deepti; Wang, Heming; D’Oliveira Albanus, Ricardo; Varshney, Arushi; Yanek, Lisa R.; Lange, Leslie; Palmer, Nicholette D.; Almeida, Marcio; Peralta, Juan M.; Aslibekyan, Stella; Baldridge, Abigail S.; Bertoni, Alain G.; Bielak, Lawrence F.; Chen, Chung-Shiuan; Chen, Yii-Der Ida; Choi, Won Jung; Goodarzi, Mark O.; Floyd, James S.; Irvin, Marguerite R.; Kalyani, Rita R.; Kelly, Tanika N.; Lee, Seonwook; Liu, Ching-Ti; Loesch, Douglas; Manson, JoAnn E.; Minster, Ryan L.; Naseri, Take; Pankow, James S.; Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J.; Reiner, Alexander P.; Reupena, Muagututi’a Sefuiva; Selvin, Elizabeth; Smith, Jennifer A.; Weeks, Daniel E.; Xu, Huichun; Yao, Jie; Zhao, Wei; Parker, Stephen; Alonso, Alvaro; Arnett, Donna K.; Blangero, John; Boerwinkle, Eric; Correa, Adolfo; Cupples, L. Adrienne; Curran, Joanne E.; Duggirala, Ravindranath; He, Jiang; Heckbert, Susan R.; Kardia, Sharon L.R.; Kim, Ryan W.; Kooperberg, Charles; Liu, Simin; Mathias, Rasika A.; McGarvey, Stephen T.; Mitchell, Braxton D.; Morrison, Alanna C.; Peyser, Patricia A.; Psaty, Bruce M.; Redline, Susan; Shuldiner, Alan R.; Taylor, Kent D.; Vasan, Ramachandran S.; Viaud-Martinez, Karine A.; Florez, Jose C.; Wilson, James G.; Sladek, Robert; Rich, Stephen S.; Rotter, Jerome I.; Lin, Xihong; Dupuis, Josée; Meigs, James B.; Wessel, Jennifer; Manning, Alisa K.; Epidemiology, School of Public HealthThe genetic determinants of fasting glucose (FG) and fasting insulin (FI) have been studied mostly through genome arrays, resulting in over 100 associated variants. We extended this work with high-coverage whole genome sequencing analyses from fifteen cohorts in NHLBI's Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. Over 23,000 non-diabetic individuals from five race-ethnicities/populations (African, Asian, European, Hispanic and Samoan) were included. Eight variants were significantly associated with FG or FI across previously identified regions MTNR1B, G6PC2, GCK, GCKR and FOXA2. We additionally characterize suggestive associations with FG or FI near previously identified SLC30A8, TCF7L2, and ADCY5 regions as well as APOB, PTPRT, and ROBO1. Functional annotation resources including the Diabetes Epigenome Atlas were compiled for each signal (chromatin states, annotation principal components, and others) to elucidate variant-to-function hypotheses. We provide a catalog of nucleotide-resolution genomic variation spanning intergenic and intronic regions creating a foundation for future sequencing-based investigations of glycemic traits.Item Whole Genome Sequencing Analysis of Body Mass Index Identifies Novel African Ancestry-Specific Risk Allele(medRxiv, 2023-08-22) Zhang, Xinruo; Brody, Jennifer A.; Graff, Mariaelisa; Highland, Heather M.; Chami, Nathalie; Xu, Hanfei; Wang, Zhe; Ferrier, Kendra; Chittoor, Geetha; Josyula, Navya S.; Li, Xihao; Li, Zilin; Allison, Matthew A.; Becker, Diane M.; Bielak, Lawrence F.; Bis, Joshua C.; Boorgula, Meher Preethi; Bowden, Donald W.; Broome, Jai G.; Buth, Erin J.; Carlson, Christopher S.; Chang, Kyong-Mi; Chavan, Sameer; Chiu, Yen-Feng; Chuang, Lee-Ming; Conomos, Matthew P.; DeMeo, Dawn L.; Du, Margaret; Duggirala, Ravindranath; Eng, Celeste; Fohner, Alison E.; Freedman, Barry I.; Garrett, Melanie E.; Guo, Xiuqing; Haiman, Chris; Heavner, Benjamin D.; Hidalgo, Bertha; Hixson, James E.; Ho, Yuk-Lam; Hobbs, Brian D.; Hu, Donglei; Hui, Qin; Hwu, Chii-Min; Jackson, Rebecca D.; Jain, Deepti; Kalyani, Rita R.; Kardia, Sharon L. R.; Kelly, Tanika N.; Lange, Ethan M.; LeNoir, Michael; Li, Changwei; Marchand, Loic Le; McDonald, Merry-Lynn N.; McHugh, Caitlin P.; Morrison, Alanna C.; Naseri, Take; NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium; O'Connell, Jeffrey; O'Donnell, Christopher J.; Palmer, Nicholette D.; Pankow, James S.; Perry, James A.; Peters, Ulrike; Preuss, Michael H.; Rao, D. C.; Regan, Elizabeth A.; Reupena, Sefuiva M.; Roden, Dan M.; Rodriguez-Santana, Jose; Sitlani, Colleen M.; Smith, Jennifer A.; Tiwari, Hemant K.; Vasan, Ramachandran S.; Wang, Zeyuan; Weeks, Daniel E.; Wessel, Jennifer; Wiggins, Kerri L.; Wilkens, Lynne R.; Wilson, Peter W. F.; Yanek, Lisa R.; Yoneda, Zachary T.; Zhao, Wei; Zöllner, Sebastian; Arnett, Donna K.; Ashley-Koch, Allison E.; Barnes, Kathleen C.; Blangero, John; Boerwinkle, Eric; Burchard, Esteban G.; Carson, April P.; Chasman, Daniel I.; Chen, Yii-Der Ida; Curran, Joanne E.; Fornage, Myriam; Gordeuk, Victor R.; He, Jiang; Heckbert, Susan R.; Hou, Lifang; Irvin, Marguerite R.; Kooperberg, Charles; Minster, Ryan L.; Mitchell, Braxton D.; Nouraie, Mehdi; Psaty, Bruce M.; Raffield, Laura M.; Reiner, Alexander P.; Rich, Stephen S.; Rotter, Jerome I.; Shoemaker, M. Benjamin; Smith, Nicholas L.; Taylor, Kent D.; Telen, Marilyn J.; Weiss, Scott T.; Zhang, Yingze; Heard-Costa, Nancy; Sun, Yan V.; Lin, Xihong; Cupples, L. Adrienne; Lange, Leslie A.; Liu, Ching-Ti; Loos, Ruth J. F.; North, Kari E.; Justice, Anne E.; Biostatistics and Health Data Science, School of MedicineObesity is a major public health crisis associated with high mortality rates. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) investigating body mass index (BMI) have largely relied on imputed data from European individuals. This study leveraged whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from 88,873 participants from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program, of which 51% were of non-European population groups. We discovered 18 BMI-associated signals (P < 5 × 10−9). Notably, we identified and replicated a novel low frequency single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in MTMR3 that was common in individuals of African descent. Using a diverse study population, we further identified two novel secondary signals in known BMI loci and pinpointed two likely causal variants in the POC5 and DMD loci. Our work demonstrates the benefits of combining WGS and diverse cohorts in expanding current catalog of variants and genes confer risk for obesity, bringing us one step closer to personalized medicine.