共查询到20条相似文献,搜索用时 31 毫秒
1.
Sulem P Gudbjartsson DF Walters GB Helgadottir HT Helgason A Gudjonsson SA Zanon C Besenbacher S Bjornsdottir G Magnusson OT Magnusson G Hjartarson E Saemundsdottir J Gylfason A Jonasdottir A Holm H Karason A Rafnar T Stefansson H Andreassen OA Pedersen JH Pack AI de Visser MC Kiemeney LA Geirsson AJ Eyjolfsson GI Olafsson I Kong A Masson G Jonsson H Thorsteinsdottir U Jonsdottir I Stefansson K 《Nature genetics》2011,43(11):1127-1130
We tested 16 million SNPs, identified through whole-genome sequencing of 457 Icelanders, for association with gout and serum uric acid levels. Genotypes were imputed into 41,675 chip-genotyped Icelanders and their relatives, for effective sample sizes of 968 individuals with gout and 15,506 individuals for whom serum uric acid measurements were available. We identified a low-frequency missense variant (c.1580C>G) in ALDH16A1 associated with gout (OR = 3.12, P = 1.5 × 10(-16), at-risk allele frequency = 0.019) and serum uric acid levels (effect = 0.36 s.d., P = 4.5 × 10(-21)). We confirmed the association with gout by performing Sanger sequencing on 6,017 Icelanders. The association with gout was stronger in males relative to females. We also found a second variant on chromosome 1 associated with gout (OR = 1.92, P = 0.046, at-risk allele frequency = 0.986) and serum uric acid levels (effect = 0.48 s.d., P = 4.5 × 10(-16)). This variant is close to a common variant previously associated with serum uric acid levels. This work illustrates how whole-genome sequencing data allow the detection of associations between low-frequency variants and complex traits. 相似文献
2.
Truncating mutations in the Fanconi anemia J gene BRIP1 are low-penetrance breast cancer susceptibility alleles 总被引:21,自引:0,他引:21
Seal S Thompson D Renwick A Elliott A Kelly P Barfoot R Chagtai T Jayatilake H Ahmed M Spanova K North B McGuffog L Evans DG Eccles D;Breast Cancer Susceptibility Collaboration 《Nature genetics》2006,38(11):1239-1241
We identified constitutional truncating mutations of the BRCA1-interacting helicase BRIP1 in 9/1,212 individuals with breast cancer from BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation-negative families but in only 2/2,081 controls (P = 0.0030), and we estimate that BRIP1 mutations confer a relative risk of breast cancer of 2.0 (95% confidence interval = 1.2-3.2, P = 0.012). Biallelic BRIP1 mutations were recently shown to cause Fanconi anemia complementation group J. Thus, inactivating truncating mutations of BRIP1, similar to those in BRCA2, cause Fanconi anemia in biallelic carriers and confer susceptibility to breast cancer in monoallelic carriers. 相似文献
3.
Loveday C Turnbull C Ramsay E Hughes D Ruark E Frankum JR Bowden G Kalmyrzaev B Warren-Perry M Snape K Adlard JW Barwell J Berg J Brady AF Brewer C Brice G Chapman C Cook J Davidson R Donaldson A Douglas F Greenhalgh L Henderson A Izatt L Kumar A Lalloo F Miedzybrodzka Z Morrison PJ Paterson J Porteous M Rogers MT Shanley S Walker L;Breast Cancer Susceptibility Collaboration 《Nature genetics》2011,43(9):879-882
Recently, RAD51C mutations were identified in families with breast and ovarian cancer. This observation prompted us to investigate the role of RAD51D in cancer susceptibility. We identified eight inactivating RAD51D mutations in unrelated individuals from 911 breast-ovarian cancer families compared with one inactivating mutation identified in 1,060 controls (P = 0.01). The association found here was principally with ovarian cancer, with three mutations identified in the 59 pedigrees with three or more individuals with ovarian cancer (P = 0.0005). The relative risk of ovarian cancer for RAD51D mutation carriers was estimated to be 6.30 (95% CI 2.86-13.85, P = 4.8 × 10(-6)). By contrast, we estimated the relative risk of breast cancer to be 1.32 (95% CI 0.59-2.96, P = 0.50). These data indicate that RAD51D mutation testing may have clinical utility in individuals with ovarian cancer and their families. Moreover, we show that cells deficient in RAD51D are sensitive to treatment with a PARP inhibitor, suggesting a possible therapeutic approach for cancers arising in RAD51D mutation carriers. 相似文献
4.
Stacey SN Sulem P Jonasdottir A Masson G Gudmundsson J Gudbjartsson DF Magnusson OT Gudjonsson SA Sigurgeirsson B Thorisdottir K Ragnarsson R Benediktsdottir KR Nexø BA Tjønneland A Overvad K Rudnai P Gurzau E Koppova K Hemminki K Corredera C Fuentelsaz V Grasa P Navarrete S Fuertes F García-Prats MD Sanambrosio E Panadero A De Juan A Garcia A Rivera F Planelles D Soriano V Requena C Aben KK van Rossum MM Cremers RG van Oort IM van Spronsen DJ Schalken JA Peters WH Helfand BT Donovan JL 《Nature genetics》2011,43(11):1098-1103
To identify new risk variants for cutaneous basal cell carcinoma, we performed a genome-wide association study of 16 million SNPs identified through whole-genome sequencing of 457 Icelanders. We imputed genotypes for 41,675 Illumina SNP chip-typed Icelanders and their relatives. In the discovery phase, the strongest signal came from rs78378222[C] (odds ratio (OR) = 2.36, P = 5.2 × 10(-17)), which has a frequency of 0.0192 in the Icelandic population. We then confirmed this association in non-Icelandic samples (OR = 1.75, P = 0.0060; overall OR = 2.16, P = 2.2 × 10(-20)). rs78378222 is in the 3' untranslated region of TP53 and changes the AATAAA polyadenylation signal to AATACA, resulting in impaired 3'-end processing of TP53 mRNA. Investigation of other tumor types identified associations of this SNP with prostate cancer (OR = 1.44, P = 2.4 × 10(-6)), glioma (OR = 2.35, P = 1.0 × 10(-5)) and colorectal adenoma (OR = 1.39, P = 1.6 × 10(-4)). However, we observed no effect for breast cancer, a common Li-Fraumeni syndrome tumor (OR = 1.06, P = 0.57, 95% confidence interval 0.88-1.27). 相似文献
5.
Gudmundsson J Sulem P Gudbjartsson DF Jonasson JG Masson G He H Jonasdottir A Sigurdsson A Stacey SN Johannsdottir H Helgadottir HT Li W Nagy R Ringel MD Kloos RT de Visser MC Plantinga TS den Heijer M Aguillo E Panadero A Prats E Garcia-Castaño A De Juan A Rivera F Walters GB Bjarnason H Tryggvadottir L Eyjolfsson GI Bjornsdottir US Holm H Olafsson I Kristjansson K Kristvinsson H Magnusson OT Thorleifsson G Gulcher JR Kong A Kiemeney LA Jonsson T Hjartarson H Mayordomo JI Netea-Maier RT 《Nature genetics》2012,44(3):319-322
To search for sequence variants conferring risk of nonmedullary thyroid cancer, we focused our analysis on 22 SNPs with a P < 5 × 10(-8) in a genome-wide association study on levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in 27,758 Icelanders. Of those, rs965513 has previously been shown to associate with thyroid cancer. The remaining 21 SNPs were genotyped in 561 Icelandic individuals with thyroid cancer (cases) and up to 40,013 controls. Variants suggestively associated with thyroid cancer (P < 0.05) were genotyped in an additional 595 non-Icelandic cases and 2,604 controls. After combining the results, three variants were shown to associate with thyroid cancer: rs966423 on 2q35 (OR = 1.34; P(combined) = 1.3 × 10(-9)), rs2439302 on 8p12 (OR = 1.36; P(combined) = 2.0 × 10(-9)) and rs116909374 on 14q13.3 (OR = 2.09; P(combined) = 4.6 × 10(-11)), a region previously reported to contain an uncorrelated variant conferring risk of thyroid cancer. A strong association (P = 9.1 × 10(-91)) was observed between rs2439302 on 8p12 and expression of NRG1, which encodes the signaling protein neuregulin 1, in blood. 相似文献
6.
A rare penetrant mutation in CFH confers high risk of age-related macular degeneration 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
Raychaudhuri S Iartchouk O Chin K Tan PL Tai AK Ripke S Gowrisankar S Vemuri S Montgomery K Yu Y Reynolds R Zack DJ Campochiaro B Campochiaro P Katsanis N Daly MJ Seddon JM 《Nature genetics》2011,43(12):1232-1236
7.
Holm H Gudbjartsson DF Sulem P Masson G Helgadottir HT Zanon C Magnusson OT Helgason A Saemundsdottir J Gylfason A Stefansdottir H Gretarsdottir S Matthiasson SE Thorgeirsson GM Jonasdottir A Sigurdsson A Stefansson H Werge T Rafnar T Kiemeney LA Parvez B Muhammad R Roden DM Darbar D Thorleifsson G Walters GB Kong A Thorsteinsdottir U Arnar DO Stefansson K 《Nature genetics》2011,43(4):316-320
Through complementary application of SNP genotyping, whole-genome sequencing and imputation in 38,384 Icelanders, we have discovered a previously unidentified sick sinus syndrome susceptibility gene, MYH6, encoding the alpha heavy chain subunit of cardiac myosin. A missense variant in this gene, c.2161C>T, results in the conceptual amino acid substitution p.Arg721Trp, has an allelic frequency of 0.38% in Icelanders and associates with sick sinus syndrome with an odds ratio = 12.53 and P = 1.5 × 10?2?. We show that the lifetime risk of being diagnosed with sick sinus syndrome is around 6% for non-carriers of c.2161C>T but is approximately 50% for carriers of the c.2161C>T variant. 相似文献
8.
Stacey SN Gudbjartsson DF Sulem P Bergthorsson JT Kumar R Thorleifsson G Sigurdsson A Jakobsdottir M Sigurgeirsson B Benediktsdottir KR Thorisdottir K Ragnarsson R Scherer D Rudnai P Gurzau E Koppova K Höiom V Botella-Estrada R Soriano V Juberías P Grasa M Carapeto FJ Tabuenca P Gilaberte Y Gudmundsson J Thorlacius S Helgason A Thorlacius T Jonasdottir A Blondal T Gudjonsson SA Jonsson GF Saemundsdottir J Kristjansson K Bjornsdottir G Sveinsdottir SG Mouy M Geller F Nagore E Mayordomo JI 《Nature genetics》2008,40(11):1313-1318
To search for new sequence variants that confer risk of cutaneous basal cell carcinoma (BCC), we conducted a genome-wide SNP association study of 930 Icelanders with BCC and 33,117 controls. After analyzing 304,083 SNPs, we observed signals from loci at 1p36 and 1q42, and replicated these associations in additional sample sets from Iceland and Eastern Europe. Overall, the most significant signals were from rs7538876 on 1p36 (OR = 1.28, P = 4.4 x 10(-12)) and rs801114 on 1q42 (OR = 1.28, P = 5.9 x 10(-12)). The 1p36 locus contains the candidate genes PADI4, PADI6, RCC2 and ARHGEF10L, and the gene nearest to the 1q42 locus is the ras-homolog RHOU. Neither locus was associated with fair pigmentation traits that are known risk factors for BCC, and no risk was observed for melanoma. Approximately 1.6% of individuals of European ancestry are homozygous for both variants, and their estimated risk of BCC is 2.68 times that of noncarriers. 相似文献
9.
Gudmundsson J Sulem P Rafnar T Bergthorsson JT Manolescu A Gudbjartsson D Agnarsson BA Sigurdsson A Benediktsdottir KR Blondal T Jakobsdottir M Stacey SN Kostic J Kristinsson KT Birgisdottir B Ghosh S Magnusdottir DN Thorlacius S Thorleifsson G Zheng SL Sun J Chang BL Elmore JB Breyer JP McReynolds KM Bradley KM Yaspan BL Wiklund F Stattin P Lindström S Adami HO McDonnell SK Schaid DJ Cunningham JM Wang L Cerhan JR St Sauver JL Isaacs SD Wiley KE Partin AW Walsh PC Polo S Ruiz-Echarri M 《Nature genetics》2008,40(3):281-283
We conducted a genome-wide SNP association study on prostate cancer on over 23,000 Icelanders, followed by a replication study including over 15,500 individuals from Europe and the United States. Two newly identified variants were shown to be associated with prostate cancer: rs5945572 on Xp11.22 and rs721048 on 2p15 (odds ratios (OR) = 1.23 and 1.15; P = 3.9 x 10(-13) and 7.7 x 10(-9), respectively). The 2p15 variant shows a significantly stronger association with more aggressive, rather than less aggressive, forms of the disease. 相似文献
10.
Casey G Neville PJ Plummer SJ Xiang Y Krumroy LM Klein EA Catalona WJ Nupponen N Carpten JD Trent JM Silverman RH Witte JS 《Nature genetics》2002,32(4):581-583
RNASEL (encoding ribonuclease L) has recently been proposed as a candidate for the hereditary prostate cancer (HPC1) gene. We determined that the RNASEL variant Arg462Gln has three times less enzymatic activity than the wildtype and is significantly associated with prostate cancer risk (P = 0.007). At least one copy of the mutated allele that causes this substitution is carried by nearly 60% of the men in our study. Men that are heterozygous with respect to the mutated allele have 50% greater risk of prostate cancer than non-carriers, and homozygotes have more than double the risk. 相似文献
11.
Sandilands A Terron-Kwiatkowski A Hull PR O'Regan GM Clayton TH Watson RM Carrick T Evans AT Liao H Zhao Y Campbell LE Schmuth M Gruber R Janecke AR Elias PM van Steensel MA Nagtzaam I van Geel M Steijlen PM Munro CS Bradley DG Palmer CN Smith FJ McLean WH Irvine AD 《Nature genetics》2007,39(5):650-654
We recently reported two common filaggrin (FLG) null mutations that cause ichthyosis vulgaris and predispose to eczema and secondary allergic diseases. We show here that these common European mutations are ancestral variants carried on conserved haplotypes. To facilitate comprehensive analysis of other populations, we report a strategy for full sequencing of this large, highly repetitive gene, and we describe 15 variants, including seven that are prevalent. All the variants are either nonsense or frameshift mutations that, in representative cases, resulted in loss of filaggrin production in the epidermis. In an Irish case-control study, the five most common European mutations showed a strong association with moderate-to-severe childhood eczema (chi2 test: P = 2.12 x 10(-51); Fisher's exact test: heterozygote odds ratio (OR) = 7.44 (95% confidence interval (c.i.) = 4.9-11.3), and homozygote OR = 151 (95% c.i. = 20-1,136)). We found three additional rare null mutations in this case series, suggesting that the genetic architecture of filaggrin-related atopic dermatitis consists of both prevalent and rare risk alleles. 相似文献
12.
Haiman CA Patterson N Freedman ML Myers SR Pike MC Waliszewska A Neubauer J Tandon A Schirmer C McDonald GJ Greenway SC Stram DO Le Marchand L Kolonel LN Frasco M Wong D Pooler LC Ardlie K Oakley-Girvan I Whittemore AS Cooney KA John EM Ingles SA Altshuler D Henderson BE Reich D 《Nature genetics》2007,39(5):638-644
After the recent discovery that common genetic variation in 8q24 influences inherited risk of prostate cancer, we genotyped 2,973 SNPs in up to 7,518 men with and without prostate cancer from five populations. We identified seven risk variants, five of them previously undescribed, spanning 430 kb and each independently predicting risk for prostate cancer (P = 7.9 x 10(-19) for the strongest association, and P < 1.5 x 10(-4) for five of the variants, after controlling for each of the others). The variants define common genotypes that span a more than fivefold range of susceptibility to cancer in some populations. None of the prostate cancer risk variants aligns to a known gene or alters the coding sequence of an encoded protein. 相似文献
13.
Tanikawa C Urabe Y Matsuo K Kubo M Takahashi A Ito H Tajima K Kamatani N Nakamura Y Matsuda K 《Nature genetics》2012,44(4):430-4, S1-2
Through a genome-wide association analysis with a total of 7,035 individuals with duodenal ulcer and 25,323 controls from Japan, we identified two susceptibility loci at the PSCA gene (encoding prostate stem cell antigen) at 8q24 and at the ABO blood group locus at 9q34. The C allele of rs2294008 at PSCA was associated with increased risk of duodenal ulcer (odds ratio (OR) = 1.84; P = 3.92 × 10(-33)) in a recessive model but was associated with decreased risk of gastric cancer (OR = 0.79; P = 6.79 × 10(-12)), as reported previously. The T allele of rs2294008 encodes a translation initiation codon upstream of the reported site and changes protein localization from the cytoplasm to the cell surface. rs505922 at ABO was also associated with duodenal ulcer in a recessive model (OR = 1.32; P = 1.15 × 10(-10)). Our findings demonstrate a role for genetic variants in the pathogenesis of duodenal ulcer. 相似文献
14.
ATM mutations that cause ataxia-telangiectasia are breast cancer susceptibility alleles 总被引:13,自引:0,他引:13
Renwick A Thompson D Seal S Kelly P Chagtai T Ahmed M North B Jayatilake H Barfoot R Spanova K McGuffog L Evans DG Eccles D;Breast Cancer Susceptibility Collaboration 《Nature genetics》2006,38(8):873-875
We screened individuals from 443 familial breast cancer pedigrees and 521 controls for ATM sequence variants and identified 12 mutations in affected individuals and two in controls (P = 0.0047). The results demonstrate that ATM mutations that cause ataxia-telangiectasia in biallelic carriers are breast cancer susceptibility alleles in monoallelic carriers, with an estimated relative risk of 2.37 (95% confidence interval (c.i.) = 1.51-3.78, P = 0.0003). There was no evidence that other classes of ATM variant confer a risk of breast cancer. 相似文献
15.
Hashibe M McKay JD Curado MP Oliveira JC Koifman S Koifman R Zaridze D Shangina O Wünsch-Filho V Eluf-Neto J Levi JE Matos E Lagiou P Lagiou A Benhamou S Bouchardy C Szeszenia-Dabrowska N Menezes A Dall'Agnol MM Merletti F Richiardi L Fernandez L Lence J Talamini R Barzan L Mates D Mates IN Kjaerheim K Macfarlane GJ Macfarlane TV Simonato L Canova C Holcátová I Agudo A Castellsagué X Lowry R Janout V Kollarova H Conway DI McKinney PA Znaor A Fabianova E Bencko V Lissowska J Chabrier A Hung RJ 《Nature genetics》2008,40(6):707-709
Alcohol is an important risk factor for upper aerodigestive cancers and is principally metabolized by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) enzymes. We have investigated six ADH genetic variants in over 3,800 aerodigestive cancer cases and 5,200 controls from three individual studies. Gene variants rs1229984 (ADH1B) and rs1573496 (ADH7) were significantly protective against aerodigestive cancer in each individual study and overall (P = 10(-10) and 10(-9), respectively). These effects became more apparent with increasing alcohol consumption (P for trend = 0.0002 and 0.065, respectively). Both gene effects were independent of each other, implying that multiple ADH genes may be involved in upper aerodigestive cancer etiology. 相似文献
16.
17.
Rare MTNR1B variants impairing melatonin receptor 1B function contribute to type 2 diabetes 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
Bonnefond A Clément N Fawcett K Yengo L Vaillant E Guillaume JL Dechaume A Payne F Roussel R Czernichow S Hercberg S Hadjadj S Balkau B Marre M Lantieri O Langenberg C Bouatia-Naji N;Meta-Analysis of Glucose Insulin-Related Traits Consortium 《Nature genetics》2012,44(3):297-301
Genome-wide association studies have revealed that common noncoding variants in MTNR1B (encoding melatonin receptor 1B, also known as MT(2)) increase type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk(1,2). Although the strongest association signal was highly significant (P < 1 × 10(-20)), its contribution to T2D risk was modest (odds ratio (OR) of ~1.10-1.15)(1-3). We performed large-scale exon resequencing in 7,632 Europeans, including 2,186 individuals with T2D, and identified 40 nonsynonymous variants, including 36 very rare variants (minor allele frequency (MAF) <0.1%), associated with T2D (OR = 3.31, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.78-6.18; P = 1.64 × 10(-4)). A four-tiered functional investigation of all 40 mutants revealed that 14 were non-functional and rare (MAF < 1%), and 4 were very rare with complete loss of melatonin binding and signaling capabilities. Among the very rare variants, the partial- or total-loss-of-function variants but not the neutral ones contributed to T2D (OR = 5.67, CI = 2.17-14.82; P = 4.09 × 10(-4)). Genotyping the four complete loss-of-function variants in 11,854 additional individuals revealed their association with T2D risk (8,153 individuals with T2D and 10,100 controls; OR = 3.88, CI = 1.49-10.07; P = 5.37 × 10(-3)). This study establishes a firm functional link between MTNR1B and T2D risk. 相似文献
18.
Alcaïs A Alter A Antoni G Orlova M Nguyen VT Singh M Vanderborght PR Katoch K Mira MT Vu HT Ngyuen TH Nguyen NB Moraes M Mehra N Schurr E Abel L 《Nature genetics》2007,39(4):517-522
Host genetics has an important role in leprosy, and variants in the shared promoter region of PARK2 and PACRG were the first major susceptibility factors identified by positional cloning. Here we report the linkage disequilibrium mapping of the second linkage peak of our previous genome-wide scan, located close to the HLA complex. In both a Vietnamese familial sample and an Indian case-control sample, the low-producing lymphotoxin-alpha (LTA)+80 A allele was significantly associated with an increase in leprosy risk (P = 0.007 and P = 0.01, respectively). Analysis of an additional case-control sample from Brazil and an additional familial sample from Vietnam showed that the LTA+80 effect was much stronger in young individuals. In the combined sample of 298 Vietnamese familial trios, the odds ratio of leprosy for LTA+80 AA/AC versus CC subjects was 2.11 (P = 0.000024), which increased to 5.63 (P = 0.0000004) in the subsample of 121 trios of affected individuals diagnosed before 16 years of age. In addition to identifying LTA as a major gene associated with early-onset leprosy, our study highlights the critical role of case- and population-specific factors in the dissection of susceptibility variants in complex diseases. 相似文献
19.
A candidate prostate cancer susceptibility gene at chromosome 17p 总被引:23,自引:0,他引:23
Tavtigian SV Simard J Teng DH Abtin V Baumgard M Beck A Camp NJ Carillo AR Chen Y Dayananth P Desrochers M Dumont M Farnham JM Frank D Frye C Ghaffari S Gupte JS Hu R Iliev D Janecki T Kort EN Laity KE Leavitt A Leblanc G McArthur-Morrison J Pederson A Penn B Peterson KT Reid JE Richards S Schroeder M Smith R Snyder SC Swedlund B Swensen J Thomas A Tranchant M Woodland AM Labrie F Skolnick MH Neuhausen S Rommens J Cannon-Albright LA 《Nature genetics》2001,27(2):172-180
It is difficult to identify genes that predispose to prostate cancer due to late age at diagnosis, presence of phenocopies within high-risk pedigrees and genetic complexity. A genome-wide scan of large, high-risk pedigrees from Utah has provided evidence for linkage to a locus on chromosome 17p. We carried out positional cloning and mutation screening within the refined interval, identifying a gene, ELAC2, harboring mutations (including a frameshift and a nonconservative missense change) that segregate with prostate cancer in two pedigrees. In addition, two common missense variants in the gene are associated with the occurrence of prostate cancer. ELAC2 is a member of an uncharacterized gene family predicted to encode a metal-dependent hydrolase domain that is conserved among eukaryotes, archaebacteria and eubacteria. The gene product bears amino acid sequence similarity to two better understood protein families, namely the PSO2 (SNM1) DNA interstrand crosslink repair proteins and the 73-kD subunit of mRNA 3' end cleavage and polyadenylation specificity factor (CPSF73). 相似文献
20.
Meijers-Heijboer H van den Ouweland A Klijn J Wasielewski M de Snoo A Oldenburg R Hollestelle A Houben M Crepin E van Veghel-Plandsoen M Elstrodt F van Duijn C Bartels C Meijers C Schutte M McGuffog L Thompson D Easton D Sodha N Seal S Barfoot R Mangion J Chang-Claude J Eccles D Eeles R Evans DG Houlston R Murday V Narod S Peretz T Peto J Phelan C Zhang HX Szabo C Devilee P Goldgar D Futreal PA Nathanson KL Weber B Rahman N Stratton MR;CHEK-Breast Cancer Consortium 《Nature genetics》2002,31(1):55-59
Mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 confer a high risk of breast and ovarian cancer, but account for only a small fraction of breast cancer susceptibility. To find additional genes conferring susceptibility to breast cancer, we analyzed CHEK2 (also known as CHK2), which encodes a cell-cycle checkpoint kinase that is implicated in DNA repair processes involving BRCA1 and p53 (refs 3,4,5). We show that CHEK2(*)1100delC, a truncating variant that abrogates the kinase activity, has a frequency of 1.1% in healthy individuals. However, this variant is present in 5.1% of individuals with breast cancer from 718 families that do not carry mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 (P = 0.00000003), including 13.5% of individuals from families with male breast cancer (P = 0.00015). We estimate that the CHEK2(*)1100delC variant results in an approximately twofold increase of breast cancer risk in women and a tenfold increase of risk in men. By contrast, the variant confers no increased cancer risk in carriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. This suggests that the biological mechanisms underlying the elevated risk of breast cancer in CHEK2 mutation carriers are already subverted in carriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, which is consistent with participation of the encoded proteins in the same pathway. 相似文献