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The results of the individual chapters are summarized below, starting with chapter 2. The first chapter is the introduction. Finally, the main research question is answered. Chapter 2: Limitations and Definitions Definitions for CI and OI were developed from which the variants of the innovation methods were derived. Definitions of CI and OI: Closed Innovation (CI) CI is an innovation method for creating an innovation for an organization, wherein only internal inventors and only this organization is involved in the innovation method. Open Innovation (OI) OI is an innovation method for creating an innovation for an organization, wherein at least one step of the innovation method is outside this organization. Four variants of innovation methods were derived from the definitions of OI and CI, that have the following characteristics: Closed Innovation (CI) One organization and internal inventors Variant 1 of Open Innovation (OI with-an-external-inventor) One organization and at least one external inventor Variant 2 of Open Innovation (firm-to-firm OI (Hagedoorn and Zobel, 2015, p. 1050)) Two or more organizations and internal inventors Variant 3 of Open Innovation (firm-to-firm OI with-an-external-inventor) Two or more organizations and at least one external inventor Inventors are those participants in an innovation process who make a creative contribution in terms of patent law to the resulting innovation. Chapter 3: State of the Scientific Research Evaluation of the state of scientific research has shown that there are very few studies on the interaction between patent law and OI on the low-level of concrete provisions of the patent law. Chapter 4: Coexistence of OI and Patent Law In the scientific community, it has been argued that patent law and OI are contradictory concepts. It was stated that patent law would hinder or even prevent OI. Therefore, it was concluded that patent law should be abolished in order to fully exploit the benefits of the OI concept.(von Hippel and von Krogh, 2006; Wilson, 2009; Baldwin and von Hippel, 2011) Many interfaces between patent law and OI have been found to refute these conclusions. Instead, in some areas patent law even helps to implement the OI concept.(Murray and Stern, 2007; de Jong et al., 2008, pp. 39–40; Hagedoorn and Zobel, 2015) At least, it can be stated that patent law and OI are not fundamentally mutually exclusive. Chapter 5: Touchpoints between OI and Patent Law It has been pointed out that one link between patent law and an OI project is the interface between invention and innovation. The invention is assigned to the subject area of patent law and innovation is assigned to the subject area of OI.(Drucker, 1986, p. 62; Keukenschrijver, 2016b Rdn. 6-10; Moufang, 2017a Rdn. 15) An innovation can be created by an OI project. If this innovation fulfils the requirements of an invention, patent law is relevant. In this case, it can be checked whether the innovation of the OI project can lead to a patent.(Kraßer and Ann, 2016, §25) Furthermore, there are effects on the innovation by the innovation method used such as OI through the prohibition rights of patent law and the legal instrument of unlawful extraction.(Keukenschrijver, 2016o, 2016c, 2016n; Kraßer and Ann, 2016, §§31 and 32; Moufang, 2017n; Rinken, 2017f, 2017a) Therefore there are three points of contact between patent law and OI, namely because OI can result in inventions in terms of patent law, because of the prohibition rights of patent law and because of the legal instrument of unlawful removal. Chapter 6: Properties of an Invention The characteristics of an invention due to patent law were determined, wherein those characteristics, which have to be fulfilled that there is an invention at all, were disregarded. These characteristics must be fulfilled anyway, so that the patent law is relevant at all. An invention according to patent law has the following characteristics: • being in the right language (Schäfers, 2015e; Stauder, 2016a; Moufang, 2017e; Visser, 2017, pp. 18–25), • feasibility (Moufang, 2017c Rdn. 349-362), • susceptible of industrial applicability (Moufang, 2017j; Visser, 2017, pp. 126–127), • being a state secret (Schäfers, 2015i), • mentioning the inventor (Teschemacher, 2016b; Moufang, 2017f), • property in the invention (Keukenschrijver, 2016l; Moufang, 2017l), • novelty (Keukenschrijver, 2016g; Moufang, 2017b) and • inventive activity (Keukenschrijver, 2016j; Moufang, 2017g). Chapter 7: Relevant Properties of an Invention It was found that four properties of an invention are indeed influenced by the innovation method chosen, namely mention of the inventor, property in the invention, novelty and inventive activity. Therefore, these properties have an effect on the way patent law works with respect to the innovation method chosen. The effects of these properties are as follows: • Patent law requires that the inventors will be mentioned.(Teschemacher, 2016b; Moufang, 2017f) Therefore, the inventors must be identified. • In addition, the invention leads directly to a claim to ownership of the invention for the inventor.(Keukenschrijver, 2016l; Moufang, 2017l) Such a claim can, for example, stand in opposition to the wish of an initiator of a crowdsourcing project. Naturally, the initiator strives for ownership of an resulting invention of the crowdsourcing project.(Geschka and Meitinger, 2016) • Due to the open character of OI, there is a danger that an invention will become known and is therefore no longer new and inventive.(Keukenschrijver, 2016g, 2016j, Moufang, 2017b, 2017g) In this case, it is not possible to patent the invention.(Kraßer and Ann, 2016, §25) The following table 44 shows all possible properties of an invention, namely those which are a requirement for being an invention at all, all possible properties in terms of patent law and those properties, which have an effect on the way patent law is working depending on the innovation method chosen. Table 44 shows all properties of an invention. In the first column of the table (requirement of an invention), the properties that are a prerequisite for an invention are determined as "yes". These properties are used in section 5.3.3 of chapter 5 to determine whether an innovation by OI can be an invention under patent law at all. The second column (directing patent law) of the table 44 lists the characteristics of an invention with "yes" that influence the way patent law is working. For example, only a new and inventive invention can become a patent. These properties are determined in chapter 6. Inventorship comprises the characteristics of mention of the inventor and property of the invention. The third column determines those properties of an invention which not only control patent law but are additionally influenced by the type of innovation method chosen. These properties are determined in chapter 7. Chapter 8: Groups of Innovation Methods Four variants of innovation methods before the background of patent law were found, namely: • Closed innovation, • variant 1 of OI: OI with-an-external-inventor, • variant 2 of OI: firm-to-firm OI and • variant 3 of OI: firm-to-firm OI with-an-external-inventor. Closed Innovation (CI) is characterized by the fact that all steps of the innovation process are within one organization. An OI with-an-external-inventor (variant 1 of OI) is an innovation method that is characterized by the participation of at least one external inventor. This inventor is not a member of the organization. The variant 2 of OI is called a firm-to-firm OI (Hagedoorn and Zobel, 2015, p. 1050) which is an OI innovation method wherein at least two organizations, such as companies or universities, are involved in the development of the innovation. Further, all the inventors are internal inventors, which means that every inventor belongs to one of the companies involved in the innovation process. The variant 3 of OI is called a firm-to-firm OI with-an-external-inventor. This variant is characterized by the fact that it is a sequence of the variants 1 and 2 of OI. It does not matter which part of the sequence starts first and which part is succeeding. A grouping of the innovation methods has been carried out. From the viewpoint of patent law, CI and firm-to-firm OI constitute a first group and OI with-an- external-inventor and firm-to-firm OI with-an-external-inventor form a second group: • Group 1 (not critical with regard to patent law): o CI and o firm-to-firm OI • Group 2 (critical with regard to patent law): o OI with-an-external-inventor and o firm-to-firm OI with-an-external-inventor. CI and firm-to-firm OI are to be assessed as not critical before the background of patent law. On the other hand, OI with-an-external-inventor and firm-to-firm OI with-an-external-inventor are critical with regard to all four relevant properties of an invention. Therefore, the characteristic of "having at least one external inventor" means that an innovation method must be regarded as critical. If you add to CI an external inventor you get OI with-an-external-inventor. If you add to firm-to-firm OI an external inventor, you arrive at firm-to-firm OI with-an-external-inventor. CI and OI with-an-external-inventor as well as firm- to-firm OI and firm-to-firm OI with-an-external-inventor therefore represent contradictory pairings from the point of view of patent law, whereby the members of group 1 are uncritical and the innovation methods of group 2 are to be regarded as critical from the viewpoint of patent law. Chapter 9: OI and Prohibition Rights The variants of innovation methods have been categorised on the basis of the possibilities of having the innovations of the innovation methods granted as patents. This resulted in two groups, namely a group 1, which comprises CI and firm-to-firm OI, and as a second group OI with-an-external-inventor and firm- to-firm OI with-an-external-inventor. A further effect on the innovation methods and the resultant innovations may come from the prohibition rights under patent law. The prohibition rights enable a patent holder to prohibit the use of a protected invention.(Keukenschrijver, 2016o, 2016c, Rinken, 2017f, 2017a) The question arose whether a different grouping of the innovation methods results in the light of the prohibition rights due to patent law. However, it was found that the grouping of the innovation methods already determined is also relevant before the background of the prohibition rights. Chapter 10: OI and Unlawful Removal The grouping of innovation methods found was examined in the light of the legal instrument of unlawful removal due to patent law. An invention is deemed to have been withdrawn unlawfully if a person who is not entitled files a patent application for this invention with the patent office.(Keukenschrijver, 2016n; Moufang, 2017n) It was found that the same grouping as in the previous two chapters is valid before the background of the legal instrument of unlawful removal. Chapter 11: Empirical Studies It has been found that CI is dominant in innovations, which result in patent applications. Therefore the importance of OI for patents was questioned.(Meitinger, 2017b, 2017c) The empirical studies of the thesis have confirmed with a more comprehensive examination, that indeed OI, in comparison to CI, plays little role in patent applications. Therefore, at the moment it can be stated, that "Thus, there will likely remain a certain level of ´closed-ness´…".(Keupp and Gassmann, 2009, p. 338) The empirical studies show that there are very few patent applications due to firm-to-firm OI, although firm-to-firm OI is compatible with patent law. However, it must be borne in mind that firm-to-firm OIs can be critical under antitrust law.(Besen and Slobodenjuk, 2011, pp. 300–301; Fuchs, 2012 Rdn. 2-9) It can therefore be assumed that at least some firm-to-firm OI innovation projects might be prevented due to concerns because of antitrust law. On the other hand, innovation methods with an external inventor lead to fewer patent applications compared to the corresponding innovation methods without an external inventor. This result was attributed to the fact that the corresponding innovations are not compatible with patent law. In principle, it would be conceivable that it is not the existence of the external inventor that is responsible for the filing or waiving of a patent application, but in particular the specificity of the organization concerned. For this reason, organizations carrying out innovation methods with external inventors were roughly compared with those organizations carrying out innovation methods without external inventors. No obvious differences in criteria such as company size, industrial sector, etc. were found. Summarizing the empirical studies, CI is dominant with respect to OI with-an- external-inventor and firm-to-firm OI dominates in comparison to firm-to-firm OI with-an-external-inventor. Further, the group 1 is dominant compared to group 2. Therefore, the theoretical findings of the thesis could not be falsified by the empirical studies. Chapter 12: Proposals to amend Patent Law Several suggestions have been developed in this thesis in order to better adapt patent law to OI. A change in the inventor's principle has been proposed to allow organizations to acquire ownership of an invention that they have initiated. Such an amendment is particularly advantageous with regard to OI with-an-external-inventor and firm-to-firm OI with-an-external-inventor, for example as crowdsourcing.(Meitinger, 2017d) A comparison was made between the employer-employee relationship and the relationship of a crowdsourcer to a crowd member. It has been found that there are similarities, suggesting that a similar law to the GEIA for the needs of crowdsourcing should be drawn up.(Meitinger, 2016) Such a special law would be also an adequate response by the legislature to the development of the labor market, with ever more flexible forms of work.(Deinert, 2014; Uffmann, 2016) The 18 months period of secrecy due to §32(2) sentence 1 PatG in conjunction with §31(2) No. 2 PatG prevents the search for current state-of-the-art documents.(Rudloff-Schäffer, 2017a Rdn. 33) This increases legal uncertainty about the patentability of inventions. In particular, inventions of OI projects are affected by this, as their open character increases the likelihood that similar patent applications will be filed. It was proposed to abolish this time period in order to be able to search the relevant prior art as early as possible. This would make it easier to ascertain whether an invention by an external inventor is patentable or whether it infringes third party intellectual property rights.(Meitinger, 2017a) Chapter 13: Miscellaneous Approaches There is an incentive theory as justification for patent law that says that the possibility of patenting an invention would spur technological development, which promotes the economy of the country concerned.(Rogge and Melullis, 2015 Rdn. 3; Keukenschrijver, 2016q Rdn. 68) However, patent law is evaluated by other scholars as disadvantageous because of macroeconomic concerns.(Mansfield, 1986, p. 180; Chu, 2009, p. 75; Lerner, 2009, p. 347) Therefore, patent law is seen controversial.(Encaoua and Hollander, 2002, p. 63; Shapiro, 2002, p. 70) The abolition of patent law was recommended. Alternatively, it is recommended a case law which favors OI, as OI is generally considered to be worthy of protection.(Wiebe, 2004; Boyle, 2006) However, this cannot be taken across the board, as OI is also used to monopolize markets. This can be done by the introduction of products to the markets being available for free. This ensures a high market penetration, wherein complements of these products are not accessible for free. These complements are needed for full functionality and will be made accessible only after sale.(West and Gallagher, 2006, pp. 325–327) For this reason, the jurisprudence should not be based on the assumption of consistently positive OI projects. A further possibility to improve harmonization of OI and patent law can result from the use of the technology of smart contracts. Smart contracts could manage innovations of OI projects in such a way, that their patentability is not infringed. Additionally an disadvantageous influence, which occurs through the prohibition rights of patent law or through the legal instrument of unlawful extraction could be prevented.(Meitinger, 2017f) In addition, a smart contract could design the ownership rights to an invention in such a way that they are more suitable for OI. Chapter 14: Recommendations for Users of OI Suggestions for OI users have been developed before the background of the current patent law. One suggestion is to document all contributions of the inventors with their date and origin. This makes it possible to meet the legal requirements of patent law after mention the inventors. In addition, it is recommended to enter into appropriate transfer agreements with each inventor so that ownership of the invention can be acquired.(Geschka and Meitinger, 2016, p. 33) It is recommendable to file the resulting invention with a patent office as early as possible. In this case, an early filing date protects against third party patents.(Keukenschrijver, 2016i Rdn. 3-4; Kraßer and Ann, 2016, §25 Rdn. 6; Teschemacher, 2016a Rdn. 1; Moufang, 2017d Rdn. 11-15). ; Administración y Dirección de Empresas

Aims The ESCAPE-NET project ("European Sudden Cardiac Arrest network– towards Prevention, Education and New Effective Treatments") aims to study: (1) risk factors and mechanisms for the occurrence of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in the population, and (2) risk factors and treatment strategies for survival after SCA on a European scale. Methods This is an Horizon2020 funded program of the European Union, performed by a European public-private consortium of 16 partners across 10 EU countries. There are 11 deep-phenotyped SCA cohorts for the study of risk factors and treatment strategies for survival after SCA, and 5 deep-phenotyped observational prospective population cohorts for the study of risk factors for occurrence of SCA. Personalized risk scores for predicting SCA onset and for predicting survival after SCA will be derived and validated. Results The 11 clinical studies with SCA cases comprise 85,790 SCA cases; the 5 observational prospective population cohorts include 53,060 subjects. A total of 15,000 SCA samples will be genotyped for common and rare variants at the Helmholtz Zentrum München (Germany) using the Illumina Global Screening Array which contains > 770,000 SNPs, and after imputation, a database of an estimated > 9 million variants will be available for genome wide association studies. Standardization of risk factors definition and outcomes is ongoing. An Executive Committee has been created along with a Collaboration Policy document. Conclusion ESCAPE-NET will complement ongoing efforts on SCA outside Europe and within Europe including the EuReCa project.

Aims: The ESCAPE-NET project (European Sudden Cardiac Arrest network-towards Prevention, Education and New Effective Treatments) aims to study: (1) risk factors and mechanisms for the occurrence of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in the population, and (2) risk factors and treatment strategies for survival after SCA on a European scale. Methods: This is an Horizon2020 funded program of the European Union, performed by a European public-private consortium of 16 partners across 10 EU countries. There are 11 deep-phenotyped SCA cohorts for the study of risk factors and treatment strategies for survival after SCA, and 5 deep-phenotyped observational prospective population cohorts for the study of risk factors for occurrence of SCA. Personalized risk scores for predicting SCA onset and for predicting survival after SCA will be derived and validated. Results: The 11 clinical studies with SCA cases comprise 85,790 SCA cases; the 5 observational prospective population cohorts include 53,060 subjects. A total of 15,000 SCA samples will be genotyped for common and rare variants at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen (Germany) using the Illumina Global Screening Array which contains > 770,000 SNPs, and after imputation, a database of an estimated > 9 million variants will be available for genome wide association studies. Standardization of risk factors definition and outcomes is ongoing. An Executive Committee has been created along with a Collaboration Policy document. Conclusion: ESCAPE-NET will complement ongoing efforts on SCA outside Europe and within Europe including the EuReCa project. (c) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.

Aims: The ESCAPE-NET project ("European Sudden Cardiac Arrest network– towards Prevention, Education and New Effective Treatments") aims to study: (1) risk factors and mechanisms for the occurrence of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in the population, and (2) risk factors and treatment strategies for survival after SCA on a European scale. Methods: This is an Horizon2020 funded program of the European Union, performed by a European publicprivate consortium of 16 partners across 10 EU countries. There are 11 deep-phenotyped SCA cohorts for the study of risk factors and treatment strategies for survival after SCA, and 5 deep-phenotyped observational prospective population cohorts for the study of risk factors for occurrence of SCA. Personalized risk scores for predicting SCA onset and for predicting survival after SCA will be derived and validated. Results: The 11 clinical studies with SCA cases comprise 85,790 SCA cases; the 5 observational prospective population cohorts include 53,060 subjects. A total of 15,000 SCA samples will be genotyped for common and rare variants at the Helmholtz Zentrum München (Germany) using the Illumina Global Screening Array which contains > 770,000 SNPs, and after imputation, a database of an estimated > 9 million variants will be available for genome wide association studies. Standardization of risk factors definition and outcomes is ongoing. An Executive Committee has been created along with a Collaboration Policy document. Conclusion: ESCAPE-NET will complement ongoing efforts on SCA outside Europe and within Europe including the EuReCa project.

Glatiramer acetate is used therapeutically in multiple sclerosis but also known for adverse effects including elevated coronary artery disease (CAD) risk. The mechanisms underlying the cardiovascular side effects of the medication are unclear. Here, we made use of the chromosomal variation in the genes that are known to be affected by glatiramer treatment. Focusing on genes and gene products reported by drug-gene interaction database to interact with glatiramer acetate we explored a large meta-analysis on CAD genome-wide association studies aiming firstly, to investigate whether variants in these genes also affect cardiovascular risk and secondly, to identify new CAD risk genes. We traced association signals in a 200-kb region around genomic positions of genes interacting with glatiramer in up to 60 801 CAD cases and 123 504 controls. We validated the identified association in additional 21 934 CAD cases and 76 087 controls. We identified three new CAD risk alleles within the TGFB1 region on chromosome 19 that independently affect CAD risk. The lead SNP rs12459996 was genome-wide significantly associated with CAD in the extended meta-analysis (odds ratio 1.09, p = 1.58×10-12). The other two SNPs at the locus were not in linkage disequilibrium with the lead SNP and by a conditional analysis showed p-values of 4.05 × 10-10 and 2.21 × 10-6. Thus, studying genes reported to interact with glatiramer acetate we identified genetic variants that concordantly with the drug increase the risk of CAD. Of these, TGFB1 displayed signal for association. Indeed, the gene has been associated with CAD previously in both in vivo and in vitro studies. Here we establish genome-wide significant association with CAD in large human samples. ; This work was supported by grants from the Fondation Leducq (CADgenomics: Understanding CAD Genes, 12CVD02), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the framework of the e:Med research and funding concept (e:AtheroSysMed, grant 01ZX1313A-2014 and SysInflame, grant 01ZX1306A), and the European Union Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement no HEALTH-F2-2013-601456 (CVgenes-at-target). Further grants were received from the DFG as part of the Sonderforschungsbereich CRC 1123 (B2). T.K. was supported by a DZHK Rotation Grant. I.B. was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) cluster of excellence 'Inflammation at Interfaces'. F.W.A. is supported by a Dekker scholarship-Junior Staff Member 2014T001 - Netherlands Heart Foundation and UCL Hospitals NIHR Biomedical Research Centre.

Abstract Background There is increasing evidence of the important role that small, isolated populations could play in finding genes involved in the etiology of diseases. For historical and political reasons, South Tyrol, the northern most Italian region, includes several villages of small dimensions which remained isolated over the centuries. Methods The MICROS study is a population-based survey on three small, isolated villages, characterized by: old settlement; small number of founders; high endogamy rates; slow/null population expansion. During the stage-1 (2002/03) genealogical data, screening questionnaires, clinical measurements, blood and urine samples, and DNA were collected for 1175 adult volunteers. Stage-2, concerning trait diagnoses, linkage analysis and association studies, is ongoing. The selection of the traits is being driven by expert clinicians. Preliminary, descriptive statistics were obtained. Power simulations for finding linkage on a quantitative trait locus (QTL) were undertaken. Results Starting from participants, genealogies were reconstructed for 50,037 subjects, going back to the early 1600s. Within the last five generations, subjects were clustered in one pedigree of 7049 subjects plus 178 smaller pedigrees (3 to 85 subjects each). A significant probability of familial clustering was assessed for many traits, especially among the cardiovascular, neurological and respiratory traits. Simulations showed that the MICROS pedigree has a substantial power to detect a LOD score ≥ 3 when the QTL specific heritability is ≥ 20%. Conclusion The MICROS study is an extensive, ongoing, two-stage survey aimed at characterizing the genetic epidemiology of Mendelian and complex diseases. Our approach, involving different scientific disciplines, is an advantageous strategy to define and to study population isolates. The isolation of the Alpine populations, together with the extensive data collected so far, make the MICROS study a powerful resource for the study of diseases in many fields of medicine. Recent successes and simulation studies give us confidence .

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identified the MEIS1 locus for Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), but causal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and their functional relevance remain unknown. This locus contains a large number of highly conserved noncoding regions (HCNRs) potentially functioning as cis-regulatory modules. We analyzed these HCNRs for allele-dependent enhancer activity in zebrafish and mice and found that the risk allele of the lead SNP rs12469063 reduces enhancer activity in the Meis1 expression domain of the murine embryonic ganglionic eminences (GE). CREB1 binds this enhancer and rs12469063 affects its binding in vitro. In addition, MEIS1 target genes suggest a role in the specification of neuronal progenitors in the GE, and heterozygous Meis1-deficient mice exhibit hyperactivity, resembling the RLS phenotype. Thus, in vivo and in vitro analysis of a common SNP with small effect size showed allele-dependent function in the prospective basal ganglia representing the first neurodevelopmental region implicated in RLS. ; The project was supported by Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung, Cologne, Germany (10.09.2.146; 10.12.2.183), KKF-TUM (8766156), DAAD (0811963), and COST (''HOX and TALE homeoproteins in Development and Disease''). B.S. was partially supported by DFG grants (WI 1820/4-1; WI 1820/5-1) and a TUM-Excellence stipend. The KORA study was financed by the Helmholtz ZentrumMunchen, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and by the State of Bavaria. KORA research was supported within the Munich Center of Health Sciences (MC Health), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universita¨t, as part of LMUinnovativ. J.L.G.-S. and F.C. acknowledge funding of the Spanish and the Andalusian Governments and the Feder program for grants (BFU2010-14839, BFU2009-07044, CSD2007-00008, and Proyectos de Excelencia CVI-3488 and CVI 2658). This work was funded in part by a grant from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), to ...

HapMap imputed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed >50 loci at which common variants with minor allele frequency >5% are associated with kidney function. GWAS using more complete reference sets for imputation, such as those from The 1000 Genomes project, promise to identify novel loci that have been missed by previous efforts. To investigate the value of such a more complete variant catalog, we conducted a GWAS meta-analysis of kidney function based on the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in 110,517 European ancestry participants using 1000 Genomes imputed data. We identified 10 novel loci with p-value < 5 × 10−8 previously missed by HapMap-based GWAS. Six of these loci (HOXD8, ARL15, PIK3R1, EYA4, ASTN2, and EPB41L3) are tagged by common SNPs unique to the 1000 Genomes reference panel. Using pathway analysis, we identified 39 significant (FDR < 0.05) genes and 127 significantly (FDR < 0.05) enriched gene sets, which were missed by our previous analyses. Among those, the 10 identified novel genes are part of pathways of kidney development, carbohydrate metabolism, cardiac septum development and glucose metabolism. These results highlight the utility of re-imputing from denser reference panels, until whole-genome sequencing becomes feasible in large samples. ; 3C. Three-City Study. The work was made possible by the participation of the control subjects, the patients, and their families. We thank Dr. Anne Boland (CNG) for her technical help in preparing the DNA samples for analyses. This work was supported by the National Foundation for Alzheimer's disease and related disorders, the Institut Pasteur de Lille and the Centre National de Génotypage. The 3C Study was performed as part of a collaboration between the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (Inserm), the Victor Segalen Bordeaux II University and Sanofi-Synthélabo. The Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale funded the preparation and initiation of the study. The 3C Study was also funded by the Caisse Nationale Maladie des Travailleurs Salariés, Direction Générale de la Santé, MGEN, Institut de la Longévité, Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire des Produits de Santé, the Aquitaine and Bourgogne Regional Councils, Fondation de France and the joint French Ministry of Research/INSERM "Cohortes et collections de données biologiques" programme. Lille Génopôle received an unconditional grant from Eisai. AGES. Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study. This study has been funded by NIH contract N01-AG-1-2100, the NIA Intramural Research Program, Hjartavernd (the Icelandic Heart Association), and the Althingi (the Icelandic Parliament). The study is approved by the Icelandic National Bioethics Committee, VSN: 00-063. The researchers are indebted to the participants for their willingness to participate in the study. ARIC. Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study. The ARIC study is carried out as a collaborative study supported by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute contracts (HHSN268201100005C, HHSN268201100006C, HHSN268201100007C, HHSN268201100008C, HHSN268201100009C, HHSN268201100010C, HHSN268201100011C, and HHSN268201100012C), R01HL087641, R01HL59367 and R01HL086694; National Human Genome Research Institute contract U01HG004402; and National Institutes of Health contract HHSN268200625226C. The authors thank the staff and participants of the ARIC study for their important contributions. Infrastructure was partly supported by Grant Number UL1RR025005, a component of the National Institutes of Health and NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. This work as well as YL and AK were supported by the German Research Foundation (KO 3598/2-1, KO 3598/3-1 and CRC1140 A05 to AK). ASPS. Austrian Stroke Prevention Study. The research reported in this article was funded by the Austrian Science Fond (FWF) grant number P20545-P05 and P13180. The Medical University of Graz supports the databank of the ASPS. The authors thank the staff and the participants of the ASPS for their valuable contributions. We thank Birgit Reinhart for her long-term administrative commitment and Ing Johann Semmler for the technical assistance at creating the DNA-bank. BMES. Blue Mountains Eye Study. The BMES has been supported by the Australian RADGAC grant (1992- 94) and Australian National Health & Medical Research Council, Canberra Australia (Grant Nos: 974159, 211069, 991407, 457349). The GWAS studies of Blue Mountains Eye Study population are supported by the Australian National Health & Medical Research Council (Grant Nos: 512423, 475604, 529912) and the Wellcome Trust, UK (2008). EGH and JJW are funded by the Australian National Health & Medical Research Council Fellowship Schemes. CILENTO. Italian Network on Genetic Isolates – Cilento. We thank the populations of Cilento for their participation in the study. The study was supported by the Italian Ministry of Universities and CNR 36 (PON03PE_00060_7, Interomics Flagship Project), the Assessorato Ricerca Regione Campania, the Fondazione con il SUD (2011-PDR-13), and the Istituto Banco di Napoli - Fondazione to MC. COLAUS. The CoLaus authors thank Yolande Barreau, Mathieu Firmann, Vladimir Mayor, Anne-Lise Bastian, Binasa Ramic, Martine Moranville, Martine Baumer, Marcy Sagette, Jeanne Ecoffey and Sylvie Mermoud for data collection. The CoLaus study received financial contributions from GlaxoSmithKline, the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of Lausanne, the Swiss National Science Foundation (33CSCO- 122661, 3200BO-111361/2, 3100AO-116323/1, 310000-112552). The computations for CoLaus imputation were performed in part at the Vital-IT center for high performance computing of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. We thank Vincent Mooser for his contribution to the CoLaus study. EGCUT. Estonian Genome Center University of Tartu. EGCUT received financing from FP7 grants (278913, 306031, 313010) and targeted financing from Estonian Government (SF0180142s08). EGCUT studies were covered from Infra-structure grant no. 3.2.0304.11-0312 funded mostly by the European Regional Development Fund, Center of Excellence in Genomics (EXCEGEN) and University of Tartu (SP1GVARENG). We acknowledge EGCUT technical personnel, especially Mr V. Soo and S. Smit. Data analyses were carried out in part in the High Performance Computing Center of the University of Tartu. FamHS. Family Heart Study. The FHS work was supported in part by NIH grants 5R01HL08770003, 5R01HL08821502 (Michael A. Province) from the NHLBI and 5R01DK07568102, 5R01DK06833603 from the NIDDK (I.B.B.). The authors thank the staff and participants of the FamHS for their important contributions. FHS. Framingham Heart Study. This research was conducted in part using data and resources from the Framingham Heart Study of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health and Boston University School of Medicine. The analyses reflect intellectual input and resource development from the Framingham Heart Study investigators participating in the SNP Health Association Resource (SHARe) project. This work was partially supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study (Contract No. N01-HC-25195) and its contract with Affymetrix, Inc. for genotyping services (Contract No. N02-HL-6-4278). A portion of this research utilized the Linux Cluster for Genetic Analysis (LinGA-II) funded by the Robert Dawson Evans Endowment of the Department of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center. GENDIAN. GENetics of DIAbetic Nephropathy study. The support of the physicians, the patients, and the staff of the Diabetes Zentrum Mergentheim (Head: Prof. Dr. Thomas Haak), the diabetes outpatient clinic Dr Nusser - Dr Kreisel, the dialysis centers KfH Amberg, KfH Bayreuth, KfH Deggendorf, KfH Donauwörth, KfH Freising, KfH Freyung, KfH Fürth, KfH Hof, KfH Ingolstadt, KfH Kelheim, KfH München Elsenheimerstraße, KfH München-Schwabing, KfH Neumarkt, KfH Neusäß, KfH Oberschleißheim, KfH Passau, KfH Plauen, KfH Regensburg Günzstraße, KfH Regensburg Caritas-Krankenhaus, KfH Straubing, KfH Sulzbach-Rosenberg, KfH Weiden, Dialysezentrum Augsburg Dr. Kirschner, Dialysezentrum Bad Alexandersbad, KfH Bamberg, Dialysezentrum Emmering, Dialysezentrum Klinikum Landshut, Dialysezentrum Landshut, Dialysezentrum Pfarrkirchen, Dialysezentrum Schwandorf, Dr. Angela Götz, the medical doctoral student Johanna Christ and the Study Nurse Ingrid Lugauer. The expert technical assistance of Claudia Strohmeier is acknowledged. Phenotyping was funded by the Dr. Robert PflegerStiftung (Dr Carsten A. Böger), the MSD Stipend Diabetes (Dr Carsten A. Böger) and the University Hospital of Regensburg (intramural grant ReForM A to Dr. A. Götz, ReForM C to Dr. Carsten Böger). Genome-wide genotyping was funded by the KfH Stiftung Präventivmedizin e.V. (Dr. Carsten A. Böger, Dr. Jens Brüning), the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung (2012_A147 to Dr Carsten A. Böger and Dr Iris M. Heid) and the University Hospital Regensburg (Dr Carsten A. Böger). Data analysis was funded by the Else 37 Kröner-Fresenius Stiftung (Dr. Iris M. Heid and Dr. Carsten A. Böger: 2012_A147; Dr. Carsten A. Böger and Dr. Bernhard K. Krämer: P48/08//A11/08). GENDIAN Study Group: Mathias Gorski, Iris M. Heid, Bernhard K. Krämer, Myriam Rheinberger, Michael Broll, Alexander Lammert, Jens Brüning, Matthias Olden, Klaus Stark, Claudia Strohmeier, Simone Neumeier, Sarah Hufnagel, Petra Jackermeier, Emilia Ruff, Johanna Christ, Peter Nürnberg, Thomas Haak, Carsten A. Böger. HABC. Health Aging and Body Composition Study. The HABC study was funded by the National Institutes of Aging. This research was supported by NIA contracts N01AG62101, N01AG62103, and N01AG62106. The genome-wide association study was funded by NIA grant 1R01AG032098-01A1 to Wake Forest University Health Sciences and genotyping services were provided by the Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR). CIDR is fully funded through a federal contract from the National Institutes of Health to The Johns Hopkins University, contract number HHSN268200782096C. This research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Institute on Aging. HCS. Hunter Community Study. The University of Newcastle provided $300,000 from its Strategic Initiatives Fund, and $600,000 from the Gladys M Brawn Senior Research Fellowship scheme; Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation, a private philanthropic trust, provided $195,000; The Hunter Medical Research Institute provided media support during the initial recruitment of participants; and Dr Anne Crotty, Prof. Rodney Scott and Associate Prof. Levi provided financial support towards freezing costs for the long-term storage of participant blood samples. The authors would like to thank the men and women participating in the HCS as well as all the staff, investigators and collaborators who have supported or been involved in the project to date. A special thank you should go to Alison Koschel and Debbie Quain who were instrumental in setting up the pilot study and initial phase of the project. HPFS. Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. The NHS/HPFS type 2 diabetes GWAS (U01HG004399) is a component of a collaborative project that includes 13 other GWAS (U01HG004738, U01HG004422, U01HG004402, U01HG004729, U01HG004726, U01HG004735, U01HG004415, U01HG004436, U01HG004423, U01HG004728, RFAHG006033; National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research: U01DE018993, U01DE018903) funded as part of the Gene Environment-Association Studies (GENEVA) under the NIH Genes, Environment and Health Initiative (GEI). Assistance with phenotype harmonization and genotype cleaning, as well as with general study coordination, was provided by the GENEVA Coordinating Center (U01HG004446). Assistance with data cleaning was provided by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Genotyping was performed at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, with funding support from the NIH GEI (U01HG04424), and Johns Hopkins University Center for Inherited Disease Research, with support from the NIH GEI (U01HG004438) and the NIH contract "High throughput genotyping for studying the genetic contributions to human disease"(HHSN268200782096C). Additional funding for the current research was provided by the National Cancer Institute (P01CA087969, P01CA055075), and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK058845). We thank the staff and participants of the NHS and HPFS for their dedication and commitment. INGI-CARLANTINO. Italian Network on Genetic Isolates – Carlantino. We thank Anna Morgan and Angela D'Eustacchio for technical support. We are grateful to the municipal administrators for their collaboration on the project and for logistic support. We thank all participants to this study. INGI-FVG. Italian Network on Genetic Isolates – Friuli Venezia-Giulia. We thank Anna Morgan and Angela D'Eustacchio for technical support. We are grateful to the municipal administrators for their collaboration on the project and for logistic support. We thank all participants to this study. 38 INGI-VAL BORBERA. Italian Network on Genetic Isolates – Val Borbera. We thank the inhabitants of the Val Borbera who made this study possible, the local administrations and the ASL-Novi Ligure (Al) for support. We also thank Clara Camaschella for data collection supervision and organization of the clinical data collection, Fiammetta Vigano` for technical help and Corrado Masciullo for building the analysis platform. The research was supported by funds from Compagnia di San Paolo, Torino, Italy; Fondazione Cariplo, Italy and Ministry of Health, Ricerca Finalizzata 2008 and 2011/2012, CCM 2010, PRIN 2009 and Telethon, Italy to DT. IPM. Mount Sinai BioMe Biobank Program. The Mount Sinai BioMe Biobank Program is supported by The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies. KORA-F3 and F4. The genetic epidemiological work was funded by the NIH subcontract from the Children's Hospital, Boston, US, (H.E.W., I.M.H, prime grant 1 R01 DK075787-01A1), the German National Genome Research Net NGFN2 and NGFNplus (H.E.W. 01GS0823; WK project A3, number 01GS0834), the Munich Center of Health Sciences (MC Health) as part of LMUinnovativ, and by the Else KrönerFresenius-Stiftung (P48/08//A11/08; C.A.B., B.K.K; 2012_A147 to CAB and IMH.). The Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Regensburg received financial contributions from the BMBF (01ER1206 and 01ER1507). The kidney parameter measurements in F3 were funded by the Else Kröner-FreseniusStiftung (C.A.B., B.K.K.) and the Regensburg University Medical Center, Germany; in F4 by the University of Ulm, Germany (W.K.). Genome wide genotyping costs in F3 and F4 were in part funded by the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung (C.A.B., B.K.K.). De novo genotyping in F3 and F4 were funded by the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung (C.A.B., B.K.K.). The KORA research platform and the MONICA Augsburg studies were initiated and financed by the Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and by the State of Bavaria. Genotyping was performed in the Genome Analysis Center (GAC) of the Helmholtz Zentrum München. The LINUX platform for computation were funded by the University of Regensburg for the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the Regensburg University Medical Center. LIFELINES. The authors wish to acknowledge the services of the Lifelines Cohort Study, the contributing research centers delivering data to Lifelines, and all the study participants. Lifelines group authors: Behrooz Z Alizadeh1 , H Marike Boezen1 , Lude Franke2 , Pim van der Harst3 , Gerjan Navis4 , Marianne Rots5 , Harold Snieder1 , Morris Swertz2 , Bruce HR Wolffenbuttel6 and Cisca Wijmenga2 1. Department of Epidemiology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands 2. Department of Genetics, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands 3. Department of Cardiology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands 4. Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Nephrology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands 5. Department of Medical Biology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands 6. Department of Endocrinology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands MESA. Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. University of Washington (N01-HC-95159),Regents of the University of California (N01-HC-95160), Columbia University (N01-HC-95161), Johns Hopkins University 39 (N01-HC-95162, N01-HC-95168), University of Minnesota (N01-HC-95163), Northwestern University (N01-HC-95164), Wake Forest University (N01-HC-95165), University of Vermont (N01-HC-95166), New England Medical Center (N01-HC-95167), Harbor-UCLA Research and Education Institute (N01-HC- 95169), Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (R01-HL-071205), University of Virginia (subcontract to R01-HL- 071205) MICROS. Microisolates in South Tyrol study. We owe a debt of gratitude to all participants. We thank the primary care practitioners R. Stocker, S. Waldner, T. Pizzecco, J. Plangger, U. Marcadent and the personnel of the Hospital of Silandro (Department of Laboratory Medicine) for their participation and collaboration in the research project. In South Tyrol, the study was supported by the Ministry of Health and Department of Educational Assistance, University and Research of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, the South Tyrolean Sparkasse Foundation, and the European Union framework program 6 EUROSPAN project (contract no. LSHG-CT-2006-018947). NESDA. The Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. The infrastructure for the NESDA study is funded through the Geestkracht programme of the Dutch Scientific Organization (ZON-MW, grant number 10-000-1002) and matching funds from participating universities and mental health care organizations. Genotyping in NESDA was funded by the Genetic Association Information Network (GAIN) of the Foundation for the US National Institutes of Health. NHS. Nurses' Health Study. The NHS/HPFS type 2 diabetes GWAS (U01HG004399) is a component of a collaborative project that includes 13 other GWAS (U01HG004738, U01HG004422, U01HG004402, U01HG004729, U01HG004726, U01HG004735, U01HG004415, U01HG004436, U01HG004423, U01HG004728, RFAHG006033; National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research: U01DE018993, U01DE018903) funded as part of the Gene Environment-Association Studies (GENEVA) under the NIH Genes, Environment and Health Initiative (GEI). Assistance with phenotype harmonization and genotype cleaning, as well as with general study coordination, was provided by the GENEVA Coordinating Center (U01HG004446). Assistance with data cleaning was provided by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Genotyping was performed at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, with funding support from the NIH GEI (U01HG04424), and Johns Hopkins University Center for Inherited Disease Research, with support from the NIH GEI (U01HG004438) and the NIH contract "High throughput genotyping for studying the genetic contributions to human disease"(HHSN268200782096C). The NHS renal function and albuminuria work was supported by DK66574. Additional funding for the current research was provided by the National Cancer Institute (P01CA087969, P01CA055075), and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK058845). We thank the staff and participants of the NHS and HPFS for their dedication and commitment. NSPHS. The Northern Swedish Population Health Study. The NSPHS was supported by grants from the Swedish Natural Sciences Research Council, the European Union through the EUROSPAN project (contract no. LSHG-CT-2006-018947), the Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) and the Linneaus Centre for Bioinformatics (LCB). We are also grateful for the contribution of samples from the Medical Biobank in Umeå and for the contribution of the district nurse Svea Hennix in the Karesuando study. RS-I. The Rotterdam Study. The GWA study was funded by the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research NWO Investments (nr. 175.010.2005.011, 911-03-012), the Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (014-93-015; RIDE2), the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI)/Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NCHA) project nr. 050-060-810. We thank Pascal Arp, Mila Jhamai, Dr Michael 40 Moorhouse, Marijn Verkerk, and Sander Bervoets for their help in creating the GWAS database. The Rotterdam Study is funded by Erasmus Medical Center and Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands Organization for the Health Research and Development (ZonMw), the Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (RIDE), the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Sports, the European Commission (DG XII), and the Municipality of Rotterdam. The authors are very grateful to the participants and staff from the Rotterdam Study, the participating general practitioners and the pharmacists. We would like to thank Dr. Tobias A. Knoch, Luc V. de Zeeuw, Anis Abuseiris, and Rob de Graaf as well as their institutions the Erasmus Computing Grid, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and especially the national German MediGRID and Services@MediGRID part of the German D-Grid, both funded by the German Bundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technology under grants #01 AK 803 A-H and # 01 IG 07015 G, for access to their grid resources. Abbas Dehghan is supported by NWO grant (vici, 918-76-619). SAPALDIA. Swiss Study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults. The SAPALDIA Team: Study directorate: T Rochat (p), NM Probst Hensch (e/g), N Künzli (e/exp), C Schindler (s), JM Gaspoz (c) Scientific team: JC Barthélémy (c), W Berger (g), R Bettschart (p), A Bircher (a), O Brändli (p), C Brombach (n), M Brutsche (p), L Burdet (p), M Frey (p), U Frey (pd), MW Gerbase (p), D Gold (e/c/p), E de Groot (c), W Karrer (p), R Keller (p), B Martin (pa), D Miedinger (o), U Neu (exp), L Nicod (p), M Pons (p), F Roche (c), T Rothe (p), E Russi (p), P Schmid-Grendelmeyer (a), A Schmidt-Trucksäss (pa), A Turk (p), J Schwartz (e), D. Stolz (p), P Straehl (exp), JM Tschopp (p), A von Eckardstein (cc), E Zemp Stutz (e). Scientific team at coordinating centers: M Adam (e/g), C Autenrieth (pa), PO Bridevaux (p), D Carballo (c), E Corradi (exp), I Curjuric (e), J Dratva (e), A Di Pasquale (s), E Dupuis Lozeron (s), E Fischer (e), M Germond (s), L Grize (s), D Keidel (s), S Kriemler (pa), A Kumar (g), M Imboden (g), N Maire (s), A Mehta (e), H Phuleria (exp), E Schaffner (s), GA Thun (g) A Ineichen (exp), M Ragettli (e), M Ritter (exp), T Schikowski (e), M Tarantino (s), M Tsai (exp) (a) allergology, (c) cardiology, (cc) clinical chemistry, (e) epidemiology, (exp) exposure, (g) genetic and molecular biology, (m) meteorology, (n) nutrition, (o) occupational health, (p) pneumology, (pa) physical activity, (pd) pediatrics, (s) statistics. Funding: The Swiss National Science Foundation (grants no 33CSCO-134276/1, 33CSCO-108796, 3247BO-104283, 3247BO-104288, 3247BO- 104284, 3247-065896, 3100-059302, 3200-052720, 3200-042532, 4026-028099), the Federal Office for Forest, Environment and Landscape, the Federal Office of Public Health, the Federal Office of Roads and Transport, the canton's government of Aargau, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Land, Geneva, Luzern, Ticino, Valais, and Zürich, the Swiss Lung League, the canton's Lung League of Basel Stadt/ Basel Landschaft, Geneva, Ticino, Valais and Zurich, SUVA, Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft, UBS Wealth Foundation, Talecris Biotherapeutics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics, European Commission 018996 (GABRIEL), Wellcome Trust WT 084703MA. The study could not have been done without the help of the study participants, technical and administrative support and the medical teams and field workers at the local study sites. Local fieldworkers : Aarau: S Brun, G Giger, M Sperisen, M Stahel, Basel: C Bürli, C Dahler, N Oertli, I Harreh, F Karrer, G Novicic, N Wyttenbacher, Davos: A Saner, P Senn, R Winzeler, Geneva: F Bonfils, B Blicharz, C Landolt, J Rochat, Lugano: S Boccia, E Gehrig, MT Mandia, G Solari, B Viscardi, Montana: AP Bieri, C Darioly, M Maire, Payerne: F Ding, P Danieli A Vonnez, Wald: D Bodmer, E Hochstrasser, R Kunz, C Meier, J Rakic, U Schafroth, A Walder. Administrative staff: C Gabriel, R Gutknecht. SHIP and SHIP-TREND. The Study of Health in Pomerania. SHIP is part of the Community Medicine Research net of the University of Greifswald, Germany, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grants no. 01ZZ9603, 01ZZ0103, and 01ZZ0403), the Ministry of Cultural Affairs as well as the Social Ministry of the Federal State of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, and the network 41 'Greifswald Approach to Individualized Medicine (GANI_MED)' funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant 03IS2061A). Genome-wide data have been supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant no. 03ZIK012) and a joint grant from Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany and the Federal State of Mecklenburg- West Pomerania. The University of Greifswald is a member of the 'Center of Knowledge Interchange' program of the Siemens AG and the Caché Campus program of the InterSystems GmbH. The SHIP authors are grateful to Mario Stanke for the opportunity to use his Server Cluster for the SNP imputation as well as to Holger Prokisch and Thomas Meitinger (Helmholtz Zentrum München) for the genotyping of the SHIP-TREND cohort. TRAILS. TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives. Trails is a collaborative project involving various departments of the University Medical Center and University of Groningen, the Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, the University of Utrecht, the Radboud Medical Center Nijmegen, and the Parnassia Bavo group, all in the Netherlands. TRAILS has been financially supported by grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research NWO (Medical Research Council program grant GB-MW 940-38-011; ZonMW Brainpower grant 100-001-004; ZonMw Risk Behavior and Dependence grants 60- 60600-98-018 and 60-60600-97-118; ZonMw Culture and Health grant 261-98-710; Social Sciences Council medium-sized investment grants GB-MaGW 480-01-006 and GB-MaGW 480-07-001; Social Sciences Council project grants GB-MaGW 457-03-018, GB-MaGW 452-04-314, and GB-MaGW 452-06- 004; NWO large-sized investment grant 175.010.2003.005; NWO Longitudinal Survey and Panel Funding 481-08-013); the Sophia Foundation for Medical Research (projects 301 and 393), the Dutch Ministry of Justice (WODC), the European Science Foundation (EuroSTRESS project FP-006), and the participating universities. We are grateful to all adolescents, their parents and teachers who participated in this research and to everyone who worked on this project and made it possible. Statistical analyses were carried out on the Genetic Cluster Computer (http://www.geneticcluster.org), which is financially supported by the Netherlands Scientific Organization (NWO 480-05-003) along with a supplement from the Dutch Brain Foundation. WGHS. Women's Genome Health Study. The WGHS is supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL043851 and HL080467) and the National Cancer Institute (CA047988 and UM1CA182913), with collaborative scientific support and funding for genotyping provided by Amgen. YFS. Young Finns Study. The YFS has been financially supported by the Academy of Finland: grants 134309 (Eye), 126925, 121584, 124282, 129378 (Salve), 117787 (Gendi), and 41071 (Skidi), the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, Kuopio, Tampere and Turku University Hospital Medical Funds (grant 9M048 and 9N035 for TeLeht), Juho Vainio Foundation, Paavo Nurmi Foundation, Finnish Foundation of Cardiovascular Research and Finnish Cultural Foundation, Tampere Tuberculosis Foundation and Emil Aaltonen Foundation (T.L). The technical assistance in the statistical analyses by Ville Aalto and Irina Lisinen is acknowledged. ; Peer Reviewed

Lean body mass, consisting mostly of skeletal muscle, is important for healthy aging. We performed a genome-wide association study for whole body (20 cohorts of European ancestry with n = 38,292) and appendicular (arms and legs) lean body mass (n = 28,330) measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry or bioelectrical impedance analysis, adjusted for sex, age, height, and fat mass. Twenty-one single-nucleotide polymorphisms were significantly associated with lean body mass either genome wide (p < 5 x 10(-8)) or suggestively genome wide (p < 2.3 x 10(-6)). Replication in 63,475 (47,227 of European ancestry) individuals from 33 cohorts for whole body lean body mass and in 45,090 (42,360 of European ancestry) subjects from 25 cohorts for appendicular lean body mass was successful for five single-nucleotide polymorphisms in/ near HSD17B11, VCAN, ADAMTSL3, IRS1, and FTO for total lean body mass and for three single-nucleotide polymorphisms in/ near VCAN, ADAMTSL3, and IRS1 for appendicular lean body mass. Our findings provide new insight into the genetics of lean body mass. ; NIH [N01 AG 12100, U01 HL72515, U01 GM074518, R01 HL088119, R01 AR046838, U01 HL084756, N01-AG-12100, U24AG051129]; NIA Intramural Research Program, Hjartavernd (the Icelandic Heart Association); Althingi (the Icelandic Parliament); Mid-Atlantic Nutrition and Obesity Research Center of Maryland [P30 DK072488]; NIH/NIAMS [F32AR059469]; American Heart Association [10SDG2690004]; NHLBI [N01-HC-85079, N01-HC-85080, N01-HC-85081, N01-HC-85082, N01-HC-85083, N01-HC-85084, N01-HC-85085, N01-HC-85086, N01-HC-35129, N01 HC-15103, N01 HC-55222, N01-HC-75150, N01-HC-45133, N01-HC-85239, HL080295, HL087652, HL105756, HL103612, HL120393, HL130114]; NINDS; NIA [AG-023629, AG-15928, AG-20098, AG-027058, 1R01AG032098-01A1]; National Center for Research Resources [UL1RR033176]; CTSI [UL1TR000124]; National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease grant [DK063491]; Southern California Diabetes Endocrinology Research Center; GlaxoSmithKline; Faculty of Biology and Medicine of Lausanne; Swiss National Science Foundation [33CSCO-122661, 33CS30-139468, 33CS30-148401]; deCODE Genetics, ehf; Cancer Research United Kingdom; Medical Research Council; EU [LSHM-CT-2003-503041]; Wellcome Trust [WT098051, WT089062, WT098017]; Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO); Erasmus MC; Centre for Medical Systems Biology (CMSB); European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), ENGAGE Consortium [HEALTH-F4-2007-201413]; Wellcome Trust; Support for Science Funding programme; CamStrad; Danish Council for Independent Research [DFF-1333-00124, DFF-1331-00730B]; US National Institute for Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases; National Institute on Aging [U24AG051129, R01 AR 41398, R01AR057118]; FP7-PEOPLE-Marie Curie Career Integration Grants (CIG); National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study [N01-HC-25195]; Affymetrix, Inc. [N02-HL-6-4278]; Robert Dawson Evans Endowment of the Department of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine; Boston Medical Center; Genome Quebec; Genome Canada; Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR); Swedish Research Council; Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research; ALF/LUA research grant in Gothenburg; Lundberg Foundation; Emil and Vera Cornell Foundation; Torsten and Ragnar Soderberg's Foundation; Petrus and Augusta Hedlunds Foundation; Vastra Gotaland Foundation; Goteborg Medical Society; German Bundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technology [01 AK 803 A-H, 01 IG 07015G]; National Institutes of Aging; National Institutes of Health [HHSN268200782096C, R01 AG 041517, M01 RR-00750]; Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Library of Medicine. Kora; Helmholtz Center Munich, German Research Center for Environmental Health; German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); State of Bavaria; German National Genome Research Network [NGFN-2, NGFNPlus: 01GS0823]; Munich Center of Health Sciences (MC Health) as part of LMUinnovativ; British Heart Foundation; Kidney Research UK; National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) programme grant; Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NCHA) [050-060-810]; Erasmus Medical Center; Erasmus University, Rotterdam; Netherlands Organization for the Health Research and Development (ZonMw); Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (RIDE); Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Ministry for Health, Welfare and Sports; European Commission (DG XII); Municipality of Rotterdam; National Institute on Aging grants [R01AG17917, R01AG15819, R01AG24480]; Illinois Department of Public Health; Rush Clinical Translational Science Consortium; Arthritis Research UK; Chronic Disease Research Foundation; National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre award; Israel Science Foundation [994/10]; NIA Intramural Research Program; Hjartavernd (the Icelandic Heart Association); German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) [16SV5536K, 16SV5537, 16SV5538, 16SV5837, 01UW0808]; Max Planck Institute for Human Development (MPIB); Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (MPIMG); Charite University Medicine; German Institute for Economic Research (DIW); University of Lubeck in Lubeck, Germany; Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) the Hague [6130.0031]; NZO (Dutch Dairy Association), Zoetermeer; Orthica, Almere; NCHA (Netherlands Consortium Healthy Ageing) Leiden/Rotterdam; Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, the Hague [KB-15-004-003]; Wageningen University, Wageningen; VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam; Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam; Healthway Health Promotion Foundation of Western Australia; Australasian Menopause Society; Australian National Health and Medical Research Council [254627, 303169, 572604]; National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Career Development Fellowship; Karen Elise Jensen foundation; NIH from NHLBI [R01-HL-117078, R01-HL-087700, R01-HL-088215]; NIH from NIDDK [R01-DK-089256, R01-DK-075681]; Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics [213506, 129680]; Academy of Finland [251217, 136895, 141005, 139635, 129494, 269517]; Finnish foundation for Cardiovascular Research; Sigrid Juselius Foundation; Yrjo Jahnsson Foundation; Finnish Diabetes Research Society; Samfundet Folkhalsann; Novo Nordisk Foundation; Liv och Halsa; Finska Lakaresallskapet; Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation; University of Helsinki; European Science Foundation (EUROSTRESS); Ministry of Education; Ahokas Foundation; Emil Aaltonen Foundation; Juho Vainio Foundation; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Association of Schools of Public Health [S043, S1734, S3486]; NIAMS Multipurpose Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Disease Center grant [5-P60-AR30701]; NIAMS Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Center grant [5 P60 AR49465-03]; Research Program - Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [2001-347-6111-221, 2002-347-6111-221, 2009-E71007-00, 2010-E71004-00]; Helmholtz Center Munich; German Research Center for Environmental Health; British Heart Foundation Grant [SP/04/002]; Academy of Finland; Finnish Diabetes Research Foundation; Finnish Cardiovascular Research Foundation; Strategic Research Funding from the University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio; EVO grant from the Kuopio University Hospital [5263]; Swedish Research Council [2006-3832, K2009-53X-14691-07-3, K2010-77PK-21362-01-2, 2008-2202, 2005-8214]; Greta and Johan Kock Foundation; A. Pahlsson Foundation; A. Osterlund Foundation; Malmo University Hospital Research Foundation; Research and Development Council of Region Skane, Sweden; Swedish Medical Society; National Institutes of Health; National Institute on Aging (NIA); National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS); National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS); NIH Roadmap for Medical Research [U01 AG027810, U01 AG042124, U01 AG042139, U01 AG042140, U01 AG042143, U01 AG042145, U01 AG042168, U01 AR066160, UL1 TR000128]; National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) [RC2ARO58973]; FAS [2007-2125]; Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government [CZB/4/276, CZB/4/710]; Royal Society; MRC Human Genetics Unit; Arthritis Research UK [17539]; European Union framework program 6 EUROSPAN project [LSHG-CT-2006-018947]; ALF/LUA research grants from Uppsala university hospital, Uppsala, Sweden; European Union Grant [QLG1-CT-2001-01252]; AstraZeneca; SHIP, part of the Community Medicine Research Network of the University of Greifswald, Germany; Federal Ministry of Education and Research [01ZZ9603, 01ZZ0103, 01ZZ0403]; Ministry of Cultural Affairs; Social Ministry of the Federal State of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania; network "Greifswald Approach to Individualized Medicine (GANI_MED)" - Federal Ministry of Education and Research [03IS2061A]; Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany; National Institute on Aging (NIA) [R01 AG005407, R01 AR35582, R01 AR35583, R01 AR35584, R01 AG005394, R01 AG027574, R01 AG027576]; Wallenberg foundation; Medical Research Council (UK); Republic of Croatia Ministry of Science, Education and Sports [108-1080315-0302]; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, US Department of Health and Human Services [N01WH22110, 24152, 32100-2, 32105-6, 32108-9, 32111-13, 32115, 32118-32119, 32122, 42107-26, 42129-32, 44221]; US National Institutes of Health grants [1-ZIA-HG000024, U01DK062370, R00DK099240]; American Diabetes Association Pathway to Stop Diabetes Grant [1-14-INI-07]; Academy of Finland Grants [271961, 272741, 258753]; Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, NIH, USA; National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health [HL57453]; [HHSN268201200036C] ; This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.

Lean body mass, consisting mostly of skeletal muscle, is important for healthy aging. We performed a genome-wide association study for whole body (20 cohorts of European ancestry with n = 38,292) and appendicular (arms and legs) lean body mass (n = 28,330) measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry or bioelectrical impedance analysis, adjusted for sex, age, height, and fat mass. Twenty-one single-nucleotide polymorphisms were significantly associated with lean body mass either genome wide (p < 5 × 10−8) or suggestively genome wide (p < 2.3 × 10−6). Replication in 63,475 (47,227 of European ancestry) individuals from 33 cohorts for whole body lean body mass and in 45,090 (42,360 of European ancestry) subjects from 25 cohorts for appendicular lean body mass was successful for five single-nucleotide polymorphisms in/near HSD17B11, VCAN, ADAMTSL3, IRS1, and FTO for total lean body mass and for three single-nucleotide polymorphisms in/near VCAN, ADAMTSL3, and IRS1 for appendicular lean body mass. Our findings provide new insight into the genetics of lean body mass. ; We acknowledge the essential role of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genome Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium in development and support of this manuscript. CHARGE members include the Netherland's Rotterdam Study (RS), Framingham Heart Study (FHS), Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), the NHLBI's Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study, and Iceland's Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility (AGES) Reykjavik Study. Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility Reykjavik Study (AGES-Reykjavik): has been funded by NIH contract N01-AG-12100, the NIA Intramural Research Program, Hjartavernd (the Icelandic Heart Association), and the Althingi (the Icelandic Parliament). The study is approved by the Icelandic National Bioethics Committee, (VSN: 00-063) and the Data Protection Authority. The researchers are indebted to the participants for their willingness to participate in the study. Old Order Amish (OOA): this work was supported by NIH research grants U01 HL72515, U01 GM074518, R01 HL088119, R01 AR046838, and U01 HL084756. Partial funding was also provided by the Mid-Atlantic Nutrition and Obesity Research Center of Maryland (P30 DK072488).). L.M.Y.-A. was supported by F32AR059469 from NIH/NIAMS. M.F. was supported by American Heart Association grant 10SDG2690004. Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS): This CHS research was supported by NHLBI contracts N01-HC- 85079, N01-HC-85080, N01-HC-85081, N01-HC-85082, N01-HC-85083, N01-HC-85084, N01-HC-85085, N01-HC-85086; N01-HC-35129, N01 HC-15103, N01 HC-55222, N01-HC-75150, N01-HC-45133, N01-HC-85239, and by HHSN268201200036C and NHLBI grants HL080295, HL087652, HL105756, HL103612, HL120393, and HL130114 with additional contribution from NINDS. Additional support was provided through AG-023629, AG-15928, AG-20098, and AG-027058 from the NIA. See also http://www.chs-nhlbi.org/pi.htm. DNA handling and genotyping at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center was supported in part by the National Center for Research Resources, grant UL1RR033176, and is now at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, CTSI grant UL1TR000124; in addition to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease grant DK063491 to the Southern California Diabetes Endocrinology Research Center. CoLaus: The CoLaus study received financial contributions from GlaxoSmithKline, the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of Lausanne, and the Swiss National Science Foundation (grants 33CSCO-122661, 33CS30-139468, and 33CS30-148401). We thank Vincent Mooser and Gérard Waeber, Co-PIs of the CoLaus study. Special thanks to Yolande Barreau, Mathieu Firmann, Vladimir Mayor, Anne-Lise Bastian, Binasa Ramic, Martine Moranville, Martine Baumer, Marcy Sagette, Jeanne Ecoffey, and Sylvie Mermoud for data collection. Data analysis was supervised by Sven Bergmann and Jacques S. Beckmann. The computations for this paper were performed in part at the Vital-IT Center for high-performance computing of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. deCODE Study: The study was funded by deCODE Genetics, ehf. We thank all the participants of this study, the staff of deCODE Genetics core facilities and recruitment center and the densitometry clinic at the University Hospital for their important contributions to this work. The EPIC Study: The EPIC Obesity study is funded by Cancer Research United Kingdom and the Medical Research Council. I.B. acknowledges support from EU FP6 funding (contract no. LSHM-CT-2003-503041) and by the Wellcome Trust (WT098051). Erasmus Rucphen Family (ERF) Study: The study was supported by grants from The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), Erasmus MC, the Centre for Medical Systems Biology (CMSB), and the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013), ENGAGE Consortium, grant agreement HEALTH-F4-2007-201413. We are grateful to all general practitioners for their contributions, to Petra Veraart for her help in genealogy, Jeannette Vergeer for the supervision of the laboratory work and Peter Snijders for his help in data collection. Fenland: The Fenland Study is funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council, as well as by the Support for Science Funding programme and CamStrad. We are grateful to all the volunteers for their time and help, and to the General Practitioners and practice staff for help with recruitment. We thank the Fenland Study co-ordination team and the Field Epidemiology team of the MRC Epidemiology Unit for recruitment and clinical testing. Tuomas O. Kilpeläinen was supported by the Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF—1333-00124 and Sapere Aude program grant DFF—1331-00730B). Framingham Osteoporosis Study (FOS)/Framingham Heart Study (FHS): The study was funded by grants from the US National Institute for Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and National Institute on Aging (R01 AR 41398 and U24AG051129; D.P.K. and R01AR057118; D.K. D.K. was also supported by FP7-PEOPLE-2012-Marie Curie Career Integration Grants (CIG)). The Framingham Heart Study of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health and Boston University School of Medicine were supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study (N01-HC-25195) and its contract with Affymetrix, Inc. for genotyping services (N02-HL-6-4278). Analyses reflect intellectual input and resource development from the Framingham Heart Study investigators participating in the SNP Health Association Resource (SHARe) project. A portion of this research was conducted using the Linux Cluster for Genetic Analysis (LinGA-II) funded by the Robert Dawson Evans Endowment of the Department of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center. eQTL HOb Study: The study was supported by Genome Quebec, Genome Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Gothenburg Osteoporosis and Obesity Determinants Study (GOOD): The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, The ALF/LUA research grant in Gothenburg, the Lundberg Foundation, the Emil and Vera Cornell Foundation, the Torsten and Ragnar Söderberg's Foundation, Petrus and Augusta Hedlunds Foundation, the Västra Götaland Foundation, and the Göteborg Medical Society. We would like to thank Dr Tobias A. Knoch, Luc V. de Zeeuw, Anis Abuseiris, and Rob de Graaf as well as their institutions the Erasmus Computing Grid, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and especially the national German MediGRID and Services@MediGRID part of the German D-Grid, both funded by the German Bundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technology under grants #01 AK 803 A-H and # 01 IG 07015G for access to their grid resources. We also thank Karol Estrada, Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands for advice regarding the grid resources. Health Aging and Body Composition Study (Health ABC): This study was funded by the National Institutes of Aging. This research was supported by NIA contracts N01AG62101, N01AG62103, and N01AG62106. The genome-wide association study was funded by NIA grant 1R01AG032098-01A1 to Wake Forest University Health Sciences and genotyping services were provided by the Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR). CIDR is fully funded through a federal contract from the National Institutes of Health to The Johns Hopkins University, contract number HHSN268200782096C. Indiana: We thank the individuals who participated in this study, as well as the study coordinators, without whom this work would not have been possible. This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants R01 AG 041517 and M01 RR-00750. Genotyping services were provided by CIDR. CIDR is fully funded through a federal contract from the National Institutes of Health to The Johns Hopkins University, contract number HHSN268200782096C. This research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Library of Medicine. Kora (KORA F3 and KORA F4): The KORA research platform was initiated and financed by the Helmholtz Center Munich, German Research Center for Environmental Health, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and by the State of Bavaria. Part of this work was financed by the German National Genome Research Network (NGFN-2 and NGFNPlus: 01GS0823). Our research was supported within the Munich Center of Health Sciences (MC Health) as part of LMUinnovativ. The London Life Sciences Population (LOLIPOP): The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council, and Kidney Research UK. The study also receives support from a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) programme grant. Rotterdam Study (RSI, RSII & RSIII): The generation and management of GWAS genotype data for the Rotterdam Study (RS I, RS II, RS III) was executed by the Human Genotyping Facility of the Genetic Laboratory of the Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The GWAS datasets are supported by the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research NWO Investments (no. 175.010.2005.011, 911-03-012), the Genetic Laboratory of the Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus MC, the Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (014-93-015; RIDE2), the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI)/Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NCHA), project no. 050-060-810. We thank Pascal Arp, Mila Jhamai, Marijn Verkerk, Lizbeth Herrera, Marjolein Peters, MSc, and Carolina Medina-Gomez, MSc, for their help in creating the GWAS database, and Karol Estrada, PhD, Yurii Aulchenko, PhD, and Carolina Medina-Gomez, PhD, for the creation and analysis of imputed data. The Rotterdam Study is funded by Erasmus Medical Center and Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands Organization for the Health Research and Development (ZonMw), the Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (RIDE), the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Sports, the European Commission (DG XII), and the Municipality of Rotterdam. We are grateful to the study participants, the staff from the Rotterdam Study and the participating general practitioners and pharmacists. We thank Dr Karol Estrada, Dr Fernando Rivadeneira, Dr Tobias A. Knoch, Anis Abuseiris, and Rob de Graaf (Erasmus MC Rotterdam, The Netherlands) for their help in creating GRIMP, and we thank BigGRID, MediGRID, and Services@MediGRID/D-Grid (funded by the German Bundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technology; grants 01 AK 803 A-H, 01 IG 07015G) for access to their grid computing resources. Rush Memory and Aging Project (MAP): The Memory and Aging Project was supported by National Institute on Aging grants R01AG17917, R01AG15819, and R01AG24480, the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Rush Clinical Translational Science Consortium, and a gift from Ms Marsha Dowd. TwinsUK (TUK): The study was funded by the Wellcome Trust, Arthritis Research UK, and the Chronic Disease Research Foundation. The study also received support from a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre award to Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King's College London. We thank the staff and volunteers of the TwinsUK study. The study was also supported by Israel Science Foundation, grant number 994/10. Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility Reykjavik Study (AGES-Reykjavik) has been funded by NIH contract N01-AG-12100, the NIA Intramural Research Program, Hjartavernd (the Icelandic Heart Association), and the Althingi (the Icelandic Parliament). The study is approved by the Icelandic National Bioethics Committee (VSN: 00-063) and the Data Protection Authority. The researchers are indebted to the participants for their willingness to participate in the study. Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF (grants #16SV5536K, #16SV5537, #16SV5538, and #16SV5837; previously #01UW0808)). Additional contributions (e.g., financial, equipment, logistics, personnel) are made from each of the other participating sites, i.e., the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (MPIB), Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (MPIMG), Charite University Medicine, German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), all located in Berlin, Germany, and University of Lübeck in Lübeck, Germany. B-vitamins in the prevention of osteoporotic fractures (B-PROOF): B-PROOF is supported and funded by The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw, grant 6130.0031), the Hague; unrestricted grant from NZO (Dutch Dairy Association), Zoetermeer; Orthica, Almere; NCHA (Netherlands Consortium Healthy Ageing) Leiden/Rotterdam; Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (project KB-15-004-003), the Hague; Wageningen University, Wageningen; VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam; Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam. All organizations are based in the Netherlands. We thank Dr Tobias A. Knoch, Anis Abuseiris, Karol Estrada, and Rob de Graaf as well as their institutions the Erasmus Grid Office, Erasmus MC Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and especially the national German MediGRID and Services@MediGRID part of the German D-Grid, both funded by the German Bundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technology (grants #01 AK 803 A-H and #01 IG 07015G) for access to their gird resources. Further, we gratefully thank all participants. Calcium Intake Fracture Outcome Study (CAIFOS): This study was funded by Healthway Health Promotion Foundation of Western Australia, Australasian Menopause Society and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grants (254627, 303169, and 572604). We are grateful to the participants of the CAIFOS Study. The salary of Dr Lewis is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Career Development Fellowship. Danish Osteoporosis Study (DOPS): The study was supported by Karen Elise Jensen foundation. Family Heart Study (FamHS): The study was supported by NIH grants R01-HL-117078, R01-HL-087700, and R01-HL-088215 from NHLBI; and R01-DK-089256 and R01-DK-075681 from NIDDK. GenMets (Health 2000): S.R. was supported by the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics (213506 and 129680), Academy of Finland (251217), the Finnish foundation for Cardiovascular Research and the Sigrid Juselius Foundation. S.M. was supported by grants #136895 and #141005, V.S. by grants #139635 and 129494, and M.P. by grant #269517 from the Academy of Finland and a grant from the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research. M.P. was supported by the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation. Helsinki Birth Cohort Study (HBCS): We thank all study participants as well as everybody involved in the HBCS. HBCS has been supported by grants from the Academy of Finland, the Finnish Diabetes Research Society, Samfundet Folkhälsann, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Liv och Hälsa, Finska Läkaresällskapet, Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation, University of Helsinki, European Science Foundation (EUROSTRESS), Ministry of Education, Ahokas Foundation, Emil Aaltonen Foundation, Juho Vainio Foundation, and Wellcome Trust (grant number WT089062). Johnston County Study: The Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project is supported in part by cooperative agreements S043, S1734, and S3486 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Association of Schools of Public Health; the NIAMS Multipurpose Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Disease Center grant 5-P60-AR30701; and the NIAMS Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Center grant 5 P60 AR49465-03. Genotyping services were provided by Algynomics company. Korean Genome Epidemiology Study (KoGES): Korean Genome Epidemiology Study (KoGES): This work was supported by the Research Program funded by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (found 2001-347-6111-221, 2002-347-6111-221, 2009-E71007-00, 2010-E71004-00). Kora F3 and Kora F4: The KORA research platform was initiated and financed by the Helmholtz Center Munich, German Research Center for Environmental Health, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and by the State of Bavaria. Part of this work was financed by the German National Genome Research Network (NGFN-2 and NGFNPlus: 01GS0823). Our research was supported within the Munich Center of Health Sciences (MC Health) as part of LMUinnovativ. LOLIP-REP-IA610: The study was supported by the Wellcome Trust. We thank the participants and research teams involved in LOLIPOP. LOLIP-REP-IA_I: The study was supported by the British Heart Foundation Grant SP/04/002. LOLIP-REP-IA_P: The study was supported by the British Heart Foundation Grant SP/04/002. METSIM: The study was supported by the Academy of Finland, the Finnish Diabetes Research Foundation, the Finnish Cardiovascular Research Foundation, the Strategic Research Funding from the University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, and the EVO grant 5263 from the Kuopio University Hospital. MrOS Sweden: Financial support was received from the Swedish Research Council (2006-3832), the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, the ALF/LUA research grant in Gothenburg, the Lundberg Foundation, the Torsten and Ragnar Söderberg's Foundation, Petrus and Augusta Hedlunds Foundation, the Västra Götaland Foundation, the Göteborg Medical Society, and the Novo Nordisk foundation. Greta and Johan Kock Foundation, A. Påhlsson Foundation, A. Osterlund Foundation, Malmö University Hospital Research Foundation, Research and Development Council of Region Skåne, Sweden, the Swedish Medical Society. MrOS US: The Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study is supported by National Institutes of Health funding. The following institutes provide support: the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), and NIH Roadmap for Medical Research under the following grant numbers: U01 AG027810, U01 AG042124, U01 AG042139, U01 AG042140, U01 AG042143, U01 AG042145, U01 AG042168, U01 AR066160, and UL1 TR000128. The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) provided funding for the MrOS ancillary study "GWAS in MrOS and SOF" under the grant number RC2ARO58973. Osteoporosis Prospective Risk Assessment study (OPRA): This work was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council (K2009-53X-14691-07-3, K2010-77PK-21362-01-2), FAS (grant 2007-2125), Greta and Johan Kock Foundation, A. Påhlsson Foundation, A. Osterlund Foundation, Malmö University Hospital Research Foundation, Research and Development Council of Region Skåne, Sweden, the Swedish Medical Society. We are thankful to all the women who kindly participated in the study and to the staff at the Clinical and Molecular Osteoporosis Research Unit for helping in recruitment of study individuals. Orkney Complex Disease Study (ORCADES): ORCADES was supported by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government (CZB/4/276, CZB/4/710), the Royal Society, the MRC Human Genetics Unit, Arthritis Research UK (17539) and the European Union framework program 6 EUROSPAN project (contract no. LSHG-CT-2006-018947). DNA extractions were performed at the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility in Edinburgh. We acknowledge the invaluable contributions of Lorraine Anderson and the research nurses in Orkney, the administrative team in Edinburgh and the people of Orkney. PEAK 25: This work was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council (K2009-53X-14691-07-3, K2010-77PK-21362-01-2), FAS (grant 2007-2125), Greta and Johan Kock Foundation, A. Påhlsson Foundation, A. Osterlund Foundation, Malmö University Hospital Research Foundation, Research and Development Council of Region Skåne, Sweden, the Swedish Medical Society. We are thankful to all the women who kindly participated in the study and to the staff at the Clinical and Molecular Osteoporosis Research Unit for helping in recruitment of study individuals. Prospective Investigation of the Vasculature in Uppsala Seniors (PIVUS): The study was supported by grants from the Swedish research council (projects 2008-2202 and 2005-8214) and ALF/LUA research grants from Uppsala university hospital, Uppsala, Sweden. Relationship between Insulin Sensitivity and Cardiovascular Disease (RISC): The RISC study is supported by European Union Grant QLG1-CT-2001-01252 and AstraZeneca. We thank Merck Research Labs for conducting DNA genotyping on RISC samples.Rotterdam III: Rotterdam Study (RS): See discovery. SHIP and SHIP TREND: This work was supported by SHIP, which is part of the Community Medicine Research Network of the University of Greifswald, Germany, by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (01ZZ9603, 01ZZ0103, and 01ZZ0403), the Ministry of Cultural Affairs as well as the Social Ministry of the Federal State of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania and the network "Greifswald Approach to Individualized Medicine (GANI_MED)" funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (03IS2061A). Genome-wide data have been supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (03ZIK012) and a joint grant from Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany, and the Federal State of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. The University of Greifswald is a member of the "Center of Knowledge Interchange" program of the Siemens. A.G. and the Cache´ Campus program of the InterSystems GmbH. The SHIP authors are grateful to the contribution of Florian Ernst, Anja Wiechert, and Astrid Petersmann in generating the SNP data and to Mario Stanke for the opportunity to use his Server Cluster for SNP Imputation. Data analyses were further supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG Vo 955/10-1) and the Federal Ministry of Nutrition, Agriculture and Consumer's Safety. SOF: The Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF) is supported by National Institutes of Health funding. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) provides support under the following grant numbers: R01 AG005407, R01 AR35582, R01 AR35583, R01 AR35584, R01 AG005394, R01 AG027574, and R01 AG027576. The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) provided funding for the SOF ancillary study "GWAS in MrOS and SOF" under the grant number RC2ARO58973. Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men (ULSAM): The study was funded by grants from the Swedish research council (projects 2008-2202 and 2005-8214), the Wallenberg foundation, and ALF/LUA research grants from Uppsala university hospital, Uppsala, Sweden. Andrew P. Morris is a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow in Basic Biomedical Science, grant number WT098017. CROATIA-VIS (VIS): The CROATIA-Vis study was funded by grants from the Medical Research Council (UK) and Republic of Croatia Ministry of Science, Education and Sports research grants to I.R. (108-1080315-0302). We acknowledge the staff of several institutions in Croatia that supported the field work, including but not limited to The University of Split and Zagreb Medical Schools, the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb and Croatian Institute for Public Health. The SNP genotyping for the CROATIA-Vis cohort was performed in the core genotyping laboratory of the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, Scotland. Women's Health Initiative (WHI): The WHI program is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, US Department of Health and Human Services through contracts N01WH22110, 24152, 32100–2, 32105–6, 32108–9, 32111–13, 32115, 32118–32119, 32122, 42107–26, 42129–32, and 44221. We thank the WHI investigators and staff for their dedication, and the study participants for making the program possible. A listing of WHI investigators can be found at https://www.whi.org/researchers/Documents%20%20Write%20a%20Paper/WHI%20Investigator%20Short%20List.pdf. FUSION: This research was supported in part by US National Institutes of Health grants 1-ZIA-HG000024 (to F.S.C.), U01DK062370 (to M.B.), R00DK099240 (to S.C.J.P.), the American Diabetes Association Pathway to Stop Diabetes Grant 1-14-INI-07 (to S.C.J.P.), and Academy of Finland Grants 271961 and 272741 (to M.L.) and 258753 (to H.A.K.). We thank all the subjects for participation and the study personnel for excellent technical assistance. The Pima Indian Study: This study was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, NIH, USA. Studies of a Targeted Risk Reduction Intervention with Defined Exercise (STRRIDE): This study was supported by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, HL57453 (WEK). Gene expression in old and young muscle biopsies: S.M. and T.G. were supported in part by NIH U24AG051129. ; Peer Reviewed

The authors have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Bruce M. Psaty (BMP) serves on the DSMB of a clinical trial funded by Zoll Lifecor and on the Steering Committee of the Yale Open Data Access Project funded by Johnson & Johnson. Barbara V. Howard (BVH) has a contract from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Brenda W.J.H. Penninx (BWJHP) has received research funding (non-related to the work reported here) from Jansen Research and Boehringer Ingelheim. Mike A. Nalls (MAN) is supported by a consulting contract between Data Tecnica International LLC and the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, USA. MAN also consults for Illumina Inc., the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and the University of California Healthcare. MAN also has commercial affiliation with Data Tecnica International, Glen Echo, MD, USA. Mark J. Caulfield (MJC) has commercial affiliation and is Chief Scientist for Genomics England, a UK government company. OHF is supported by grants from Metagenics (on women's health and epigenetics) and from Nestlé (on child health). Peter S. Sever (PSS) is financial supported from several pharmaceutical companies which manufacture either blood pressure lowering or lipid lowering agents, or both, and consultancy fees. Paul W. Franks (PWF) has been a paid consultant in the design of a personalized nutrition trial (PREDICT) as part of a private-public partnership at Kings College London, UK, and has received research support from several pharmaceutical companies as part of European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) projects. Terho Lehtimäki (TL) is employed by Fimlab Ltd. Ozren Polašek (OP) is employed by Gen‐info Ltd. There are no patents, products in development, or marked products to declare. All the other authors have declared no competing interests exist. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. ; International audience ; Heavy alcohol consumption is an established risk factor for hypertension; the mechanism by which alcohol consumption impact blood pressure (BP) regulation remains unknown. We hypothesized that a genome-wide association study accounting for gene-alcohol consumption interaction for BP might identify additional BP loci and contribute to the understanding of alcohol-related BP regulation. We conducted a large two-stage investigation incorporating joint testing of main genetic effects and single nucleotide variant (SNV)-alcohol consumption interactions. In Stage 1, genome-wide discovery meta-analyses in ≈131K individuals across several ancestry groups yielded 3,514 SNVs (245 loci) with suggestive evidence of association (P < 1.0 x 10-5). In Stage 2, these SNVs were tested for independent external replication in ≈440K individuals across multiple ancestries. We identified and replicated (at Bonferroni correction threshold) five novel BP loci (380 SNVs in 21 genes) and 49 previously reported BP loci (2,159 SNVs in 109 genes) in European ancestry, and in multi-ancestry meta-analyses (P < 5.0 x 10-8). For African ancestry samples, we detected 18 potentially novel BP loci (P < 5.0 x 10-8) in Stage 1 that warrant further replication. Additionally, correlated meta-analysis identified eight novel BP loci (11 genes). Several genes in these loci (e.g., PINX1, GATA4, BLK, FTO and GABBR2) have been previously reported to be associated with alcohol consumption. These findings provide insights into the role of alcohol consumption in the genetic architecture of hypertension.

The authors have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Bruce M. Psaty (BMP) serves on the DSMB of a clinical trial funded by Zoll Lifecor and on the Steering Committee of the Yale Open Data Access Project funded by Johnson & Johnson. Barbara V. Howard (BVH) has a contract from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Brenda W.J.H. Penninx (BWJHP) has received research funding (non-related to the work reported here) from Jansen Research and Boehringer Ingelheim. Mike A. Nalls (MAN) is supported by a consulting contract between Data Tecnica International LLC and the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, USA. MAN also consults for Illumina Inc., the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and the University of California Healthcare. MAN also has commercial affiliation with Data Tecnica International, Glen Echo, MD, USA. Mark J. Caulfield (MJC) has commercial affiliation and is Chief Scientist for Genomics England, a UK government company. OHF is supported by grants from Metagenics (on women's health and epigenetics) and from Nestlé (on child health). Peter S. Sever (PSS) is financial supported from several pharmaceutical companies which manufacture either blood pressure lowering or lipid lowering agents, or both, and consultancy fees. Paul W. Franks (PWF) has been a paid consultant in the design of a personalized nutrition trial (PREDICT) as part of a private-public partnership at Kings College London, UK, and has received research support from several pharmaceutical companies as part of European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) projects. Terho Lehtimäki (TL) is employed by Fimlab Ltd. Ozren Polašek (OP) is employed by Gen‐info Ltd. There are no patents, products in development, or marked products to declare. All the other authors have declared no competing interests exist. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. ; International audience ; Heavy alcohol consumption is an established risk factor for hypertension; the mechanism by which alcohol consumption impact blood pressure (BP) regulation remains unknown. We hypothesized that a genome-wide association study accounting for gene-alcohol consumption interaction for BP might identify additional BP loci and contribute to the understanding of alcohol-related BP regulation. We conducted a large two-stage investigation incorporating joint testing of main genetic effects and single nucleotide variant (SNV)-alcohol consumption interactions. In Stage 1, genome-wide discovery meta-analyses in ≈131K individuals across several ancestry groups yielded 3,514 SNVs (245 loci) with suggestive evidence of association (P < 1.0 x 10-5). In Stage 2, these SNVs were tested for independent external replication in ≈440K individuals across multiple ancestries. We identified and replicated (at Bonferroni correction threshold) five novel BP loci (380 SNVs in 21 genes) and 49 previously reported BP loci (2,159 SNVs in 109 genes) in European ancestry, and in multi-ancestry meta-analyses (P < 5.0 x 10-8). For African ancestry samples, we detected 18 potentially novel BP loci (P < 5.0 x 10-8) in Stage 1 that warrant further replication. Additionally, correlated meta-analysis identified eight novel BP loci (11 genes). Several genes in these loci (e.g., PINX1, GATA4, BLK, FTO and GABBR2) have been previously reported to be associated with alcohol consumption. These findings provide insights into the role of alcohol consumption in the genetic architecture of hypertension.