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Nature Research, Nature Communications, 1(11), 2020

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15706-x

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Multi-ancestry GWAS of the electrocardiographic PR interval identifies 202 loci underlying cardiac conduction

Journal article published in 2020 by Ioanna Ntalla, Weng Lc, Lu-Chen Weng ORCID, James H. Cartwright, Cartwright Jh, Hall Aw, Amelia Weber Hall ORCID, Gardar Sveinbjornsson ORCID, Tucker Nr, Nathan R. Tucker ORCID, Seung Hoan Choi, Choi Sh, Mark D. Chaffin ORCID, Chaffin Md, Carolina Roselli ORCID and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

AbstractThe electrocardiographic PR interval reflects atrioventricular conduction, and is associated with conduction abnormalities, pacemaker implantation, atrial fibrillation (AF), and cardiovascular mortality. Here we report a multi-ancestry (N = 293,051) genome-wide association meta-analysis for the PR interval, discovering 202 loci of which 141 have not previously been reported. Variants at identified loci increase the percentage of heritability explained, from 33.5% to 62.6%. We observe enrichment for cardiac muscle developmental/contractile and cytoskeletal genes, highlighting key regulation processes for atrioventricular conduction. Additionally, 8 loci not previously reported harbor genes underlying inherited arrhythmic syndromes and/or cardiomyopathies suggesting a role for these genes in cardiovascular pathology in the general population. We show that polygenic predisposition to PR interval duration is an endophenotype for cardiovascular disease, including distal conduction disease, AF, and atrioventricular pre-excitation. These findings advance our understanding of the polygenic basis of cardiac conduction, and the genetic relationship between PR interval duration and cardiovascular disease.