Genome-wide Association Study of Parental Life Span

Abstract

Background Having longer lived parents has been shown to be an important predictor of health trajectories and life span. As such, parental life span is an important phenotype that may uncover genes that affect longevity. Methods A genome-wide association study of parental life span in participants of European and African ancestry from the Health and Retirement Study was conducted. Results A genome-wide significant association was observed for rs35715456 (log 10 BF = 6.3) on chromosome 18 for the dichotomous trait of having at least one long-lived parent versus not having any long-lived parent. This association was not replicated in an independent sample from the InCHIANTI and Framingham Heart Study. The most significant association among single nucleotide polymorphisms in longevity candidate genes (APOE, MINIPP1, FOXO3, EBF1, CAMKIV, and OTOL1) was observed in the EBF1 gene region (rs17056207, p =.0002). Conclusions A promising genetic signal for parental life span was identified but was not replicated in independent samples.