Genome-wide association study on longitudinal and cross-sectional traits of child health and development in a Japanese population

Longitudinal and cross-sectional GWAS in the Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS) identified 6,073 common genomic loci for 1,255 child health and developmental traits, including 2,332 meeting P=4.010-11.

• Why it matters: Early-life genetics and prenatal environment are difficult to disentangle across time and multiple outcomes, limiting prediction of child growth and understanding of exposure-linked traits.
• What they did: Using genome-wide genotyping from 80,639 Japanese children with cord blood DNA, the study tested 1,255 child traits and parental exposure traits, plus longitudinal BMI GWAS via Gaussian process regression.
• The result: Longitudinal BMI analysis found 158 independent loci (41 not detected by age-stratified cross-sectional GWAS), and genetic signals linked maternal exposures during pregnancy to child traits after birth.

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