Genome-wide association study of bipolar I disorder in the Han Chinese population

We report the first genome-wide association study in 1000 bipolar I patients and 1000 controls, with a replication of the top hits in another 409 cases and 1000 controls in the Han Chinese population. Four regions with most strongly associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected, of which three were not found in previous GWA studies in the Caucasian populations. Among them, SNPs close to specificity protein 8 (SP8) and ST8 alpha-N-acetyl- neuraminide alpha-2,8-sialyltransferase (ST8SIA2) are associated with Bipolar I, with P-values of 4.87 x 10(-7) (rs2709736) and 6.05 x 10(-6) (rs8040009), respectively. We have also identified SNPs in potassium channel tetramerization domain containing 12 gene (KCTD12) (rs2073831, P = 9.74 x 10(-6)) and in CACNB2 (Calcium channel, voltage-dependent, beta-2 subunit) gene (rs11013860, P = 5.15 x 10(-5)), One SNP nearby the rs1938526 SNP of ANK3 gene and another SNP nearby the SNP rs11720452 in chromosome 3 reported in previous GWA studies also showed suggestive association in this study (P = 6.55 x 10(-5) and P = 1.48 x 10(-5), respectively). This may suggest that there are common and population-specific susceptibility genes for bipolar I disorder. Molecular Psychiatry (2011) 16, 548-556; doi:10.1038/mp.2010.43; published online 13 April 2010