Discovery of susceptibility loci associated with tuberculosis in Han Chinese

Abstract

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have revealed the worldwide heterogeneity of genetic factors in tuberculosis (TB) susceptibility. Despite having the third highest global TB burden, no TB-related GWAS has been performed in China. Here, we performed the first three-stage GWAS on TB in the Han Chinese population. In the stage 1 (discovery stage), after quality control, 691 388 SNPs present in 972 TB patients and 1537 controls were retained. After replication on an additional 3460 TB patients and 4862 controls (stages 2 and 3), we identified three significant loci associated with TB, the most significant of which was rs4240897 (logistic regression P=1.41×10-11, odds ratio=0.79). The aforementioned three SNPs were harbored by MFN2, RGS12 and human leukocyte antigen class II beta chain paralogue encoding genes, all of which are candidate immune genes associated with TB. Our findings provide new insight into the genetic background of TB in the Han Chinese population.