Genome-wide association analyses identifies a susceptibility locus for tuberculosis on chromosome 18q11.2.
Thye T., Vannberg FO., Wong SH., Owusu-Dabo E., Osei I., Gyapong J., Sirugo G., Sisay-Joof F., Enimil A., Chinbuah MA., Floyd S., Warndorff DK., Sichali L., Malema S., Crampin AC., Ngwira B., Teo YY., Small K., Rockett K., Kwiatkowski D., Fine PE., Hill PC., Newport M., Lienhardt C., Adegbola RA., Corrah T., Ziegler A., Morris AP., Meyer CG., Horstmann RD., Hill AVS.
We combined two tuberculosis genome-wide association studies from Ghana and The Gambia with subsequent replication in a combined 11,425 individuals. rs4331426, located in a gene-poor region on chromosome 18q11.2, was associated with disease (combined P = 6.8 x 10(-9), odds ratio = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.13-1.27). Our study demonstrates that genome-wide association studies can identify new susceptibility loci for infectious diseases, even in African populations, in which levels of linkage disequilibrium are particularly low.