Subcutaneous adipose tissue splice quantitative trait loci reveal differences in isoform usage associated with cardiometabolic traits

Alternate splicing events can create isoforms that alter gene function, and genetic variants associated with alternate gene isoforms may reveal molecular mechanisms of disease. We used subcutaneous adipose tissue of 426 Finnish men from the METSIM study and iden-tified splice junction quantitative trait loci (sQTLs) for 6,077 splice junctions (FDR < 1%). In the same individuals, we detected expres-sion QTLs (eQTLs) for 59,443 exons and 15,397 genes (FDR 1%). We identified 595 genes with an sQTL and exon eQTL but no gene eQTL, which could indicate potential isoform differences. Of the significant sQTL signals, 2,114 (39.8%) included at least one proxy variant (linkage disequilibrium r(2) > 0.8) located within an intron spanned by the splice junction. We identified 203 sQTLs that colocal-ized with 141 genome-wide association study (GWAS) signals for cardiometabolic traits, including 25 signals for lipid traits, 24 signals for body mass index (BMI), and 12 signals for waist-hip ratio adjusted for BMI. Among all 141 GWAS signals colocalized with an sQTL, we detected 26 that also colocalized with an exon eQTL for an exon skipped by the sQTL splice junction. At a GWAS signal for high-density lipoprotein cholesterol colocalized with an NR1H3 sQTL splice junction, we show that the alternative splice product encodes an NR1H3 transcription factor that lacks a DNA binding domain and fails to activate transcription. Together, these results detect splicing events and candidate mechanisms that may contribute to gene function at GWAS loci.

Automated summary

This study used subcutaneous adipose tissue from 426 Finnish men to identify splice junction quantitative trait loci (sQTLs) and expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs). They found that these genetic variants may reveal molecular mechanisms of disease, and detected splicing events that could potentially contribute to gene function at GWAS loci.