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Updated: Jul 8, 2025

Large-Scale Multi-Omics Genome-Wide Association Studies Mo-GWAS: Guidelines for Sample Preparation and Normalization
Published on: July 27, 2021
Genome-wide association study meta-analysis of blood pressure traits and hypertension in sub-Saharan African
Surina Singh1,2, Ananyo Choudhury3, Scott Hazelhurst3,4
1Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. surinsingh@hotmail.co.za.
Abstract:
Most hypertension-related genome-wide association studies (GWASs) focus on non-African populations, despite hypertension (a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease) being highly prevalent in Africa. The AWI-Gen study GWAS meta-analysis for blood pressure (BP)-related traits (systolic and diastolic BP, pulse pressure, mean-arterial pressure and hypertension) from three sub-Saharan African geographic regions (N = 10,775), identifies two novel genome-wide significant signals (p < 5E-08): systolic BP near P2RY1 (rs77846204; intergenic variant, p = 4.95E-08) and pulse pressure near LINC01256 (rs80141533; intergenic variant, p = 1.76E-08). No genome-wide signals are detected for the AWI-Gen GWAS meta-analysis with previous African-ancestry GWASs (UK Biobank (African), Uganda Genome Resource). Suggestive signals (p < 5E-06) are observed for all traits, with 29 SNPs associating with more than one trait and several replicating known associations. Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) developed from studies on different ancestries have limited transferability, with multi-ancestry PRS providing better prediction. This study provides insights into the genetics of BP variation in African populations.
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