Genetic analysis of circulating metabolic traits in 619,372 individuals
A recent genetic analysis examined 249 circulating metabolic traits in a large cohort of 619,372 individuals from the Estonian Biobank and the UK Biobank. The study identified numerous associations between genetic variants and metabolic traits, highlighting the importance of low-frequency variants in genetic research. Findings suggest that targeting certain metabolic pathways may not effectively reduce the risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes.
- ▪The study performed a GWAS meta-analysis for 249 metabolic traits in up to 619,372 individuals.
- ▪Researchers identified 88,127 locus-trait associations from 8,398 loci converging on shared genes and pathways.
- ▪19.4% of the fine-mapped variants had minor allele frequencies between 0.1 and 1%, indicating a significant presence of low-frequency variants.
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Download PDF Article Open access Published: 20 May 2026 Genetic analysis of circulating metabolic traits in 619,372 individuals Ralf Tambets1, Mihkel Jesse ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0008-6108-411X1, Jaanika Kronberg ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2362-656X2,3, Adriaan van der Graaf ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8898-84844, Erik Abner ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6529-31612, Urmo Võsa2, Ida Rahu ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5497-55221, Nele Taba ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1953-28192, Anastassia Kolde ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0002-6963-70532,3, Dzvenymyra Yarish1, Sariyya Abdullayeva1, Anastasiia Alekseienko2, Andres Veidenberg ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7451-06262, Estonian Biobank Research Team, Krista Fischer ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3521-05992,3, Zoltán Kutalik ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8285-75234,5,…
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