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GWAS of smoking behaviour in 165,436 Japanese people reveals seven new loci and shared genetic architecture

Nature Human Behaviour volume 3, pages 471–477 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for a wide range of human diseases1. To investigate the genetic components associated with smoking behaviours in the Japanese population, we conducted a genome-wide association study of four smoking-related traits using up to 165,436 individuals. In total, we identified seven new loci, including three loci associated with the number of cigarettes per day (EPHX2–CLU, RET and CUX2–ALDH2), three loci associated with smoking initiation (DLC1, CXCL12–TMEM72-AS1 and GALR1–SALL3) and LINC01793–MIR4432HG, associated with the age of smoking initiation. Of these, three loci (LINC01793–MIR4432HG, CXCL12–TMEM72-AS1 and GALR1–SALL3) were found by conducting an additional sex-stratified genome-wide association study. This additional analysis showed heterogeneity of effects between sexes. The cross-sex linkage disequilibrium score regression2,3 analysis also indicated that the genetic component of smoking initiation was significantly different between the sexes. Cross-trait linkage disequilibrium score regression analysis and trait-relevant tissue analysis showed that the number of cigarettes per day has a specific genetic background distinct from those of the other three smoking behaviours. We also report 11 diseases that share genetic basis with smoking behaviours. Although the current study should be carefully considered owing to the lack of replication samples, our findings characterized the genetic architecture of smoking behaviours. Further studies in East Asian populations are warranted to confirm our findings.

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Figure 1: GWAS results for smoking behaviours.
Figure 2: Genetic correlation of smoking behaviours to various diseases.
Figure 3: Trait-relevant cell types of smoking behaviours.

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Data availability

GWAS summary statistics of the smoking behaviours are publicly available at our website (JENGER; http://jenger.riken.jp/en/) and the National Bioscience Database Center (NBDC) Human Database (research ID: hum0014) as open data without any access restrictions. The accession numbers for each phenotype in the NBDC Human Database are as follows: age of smoking initiation: hum0014.v14.asi.v1; CPD: hum0014.v14.cpd.v1; smoking initiation: hum0014.v14.ens.v1; smoking cessation: hum0014.v14.fcs.v1. GWAS genotype data from the participants were deposited at the NBDC Human Database (research ID: hum0014).

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge all patients who participated in the study. We thank the staff of the BBJ for their collecting and managing of clinical information and samples. We also thank the contributions of the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project, the Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective (JPHC) Study, the Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort (J-MICC) Study, and the Genetic Study Group of Investigation Committee on Ossification of the Spinal Ligaments for the case–control studies used in this study. This research was supported by the Tailor-Made Medical Treatment Program (the BioBank Japan Project) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), and the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) (grant ID: JP17km0305002). N.I. and M.I. were funded by the AMED under JP18dm0107097, JP18km0405201 and JP18km0405028. S.I. was funded by the AMED under JP18ek0109223 and JP18bm0804006. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Statistical Analysis, RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, Yokohama, Japan

    Nana Matoba, Masato Akiyama, Kazuyoshi Ishigaki, Masahiro Kanai, Atsushi Takahashi, Yukinori Okada & Yoichiro Kamatani

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Masato Akiyama

  3. Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Masahiro Kanai

  4. Department of Genomic Medicine, Research Institute, National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Suita, Japan

    Atsushi Takahashi

  5. Laboratory for Genotyping Development, RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, Yokohama, Japan

    Yukihide Momozawa

  6. Laboratory for Bone and Joint Diseases, RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, Tokyo, Japan

    Shiro Ikegawa

  7. Department of Psychiatry, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyotake, Japan

    Masashi Ikeda & Nakao Iwata

  8. Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Makoto Hirata

  9. Graduate school of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Koichi Matsuda

  10. RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, Yokohama, Japan

    Michiaki Kubo

  11. Department of Statistical Genetics, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan

    Yukinori Okada

  12. Laboratory of Statistical Immunology, Immunology Frontier Research Center (WPI-IFReC), Osaka University, Suita, Japan

    Yukinori Okada

  13. Kyoto-McGill International Collaborative School in Genomic Medicine, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan

    Yoichiro Kamatani

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Contributions

N.M., M.A. and Y.K. contributed to the study concept and design. K.M., M.H. and M.Kubo collected and managed the BBJ samples. Y.M. and M.Kubo performed the genotyping. N.M., M.A., K.I., M.Kanai and A.T. performed the statistical analysis. S.I. M.I. and N.I. contributed to data acquisition. N.M. drafted the primary manuscript along with M.A., Y.O. and Y.K. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yoichiro Kamatani.

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Supplementary Figures 1–7, Supplementary Tables 1–6 and 9–13, and Supplementary References.

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Matoba, N., Akiyama, M., Ishigaki, K. et al. GWAS of smoking behaviour in 165,436 Japanese people reveals seven new loci and shared genetic architecture. Nat Hum Behav 3, 471–477 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0557-y

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