Genomic analysis of intracranial and subcortical brain volumes yields polygenic scores accounting for variation across ancestries

Luis M García-Marín*, Adrian I Campos, Santiago Diaz-Torres, Jill A Rabinowitz, Zuriel Ceja, Brittany L Mitchell, Katrina L Grasby, Jackson G Thorp, Ingrid Agartz, Saud Alhusaini, David Ames, Philippe Amouyel, Ole A Andreassen, Konstantinos Arfanakis, Alejandro Arias Vasquez, Nicola J Armstrong, Lavinia Athanasiu, Mark E Bastin, Alexa S Beiser, David A BennettJoshua C Bis, Marco Pm Boks, Dorret I Boomsma, Henry Brodaty, Rachel M Brouwer, Jan K Buitelaar, Ralph Burkhardt, Wiepke Cahn, Vince D Calhoun, Owen T Carmichael, Mallar Chakravarty, Qiang Chen, Christopher R K Ching, Sven Cichon, Benedicto Crespo-Facorro, Fabrice Crivello, Anders M Dale, George Davey Smith, Eco Jc de Geus, Philip L De Jager, Greig I de Zubicaray, Stéphanie Debette, Charles DeCarli, Chantal Depondt, Sylvane Desrivières, M Kamran Ikram, Rene S Kahn, Marieke Klein, Li Shen, Daniel R Weinberger,

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Working paperPreprintAcademic

Abstract

Subcortical brain structures are involved in developmental, psychiatric and neurological disorders. We performed GWAS meta-analyses of intracranial and nine subcortical brain volumes (brainstem, caudate nucleus, putamen, hippocampus, globus pallidus, thalamus, nucleus accumbens, amygdala and, for the first time, the ventral diencephalon) in 74,898 participants of European ancestry. We identified 254 independent loci associated with these brain volumes, explaining up to 35% of phenotypic variance. We observed gene expression in specific neural cell types across differentiation time points, including genes involved in intracellular signalling and brain ageing-related processes. Polygenic scores for brain volumes showed predictive ability when applied to individuals of diverse ancestries. We observed causal genetic effects of brain volumes with Parkinson's disease and ADHD. Findings implicate specific gene expression patterns in brain development and genetic variants in comorbid neuropsychiatric disorders, which could point to a brain substrate and region of action for risk genes implicated in brain diseases.

Original languageEnglish
PublishermedRxiv
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Aug 2024

Publication series

NamemedRxiv
PublisherCold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

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