TY - JOUR
T1 - Uncommon Protein-Coding Variants Associated With Suicide Attempt in a Diverse Sample of U.S. Army Soldiers
AU - Wilkerson, Matthew D.
AU - Hupalo, Daniel
AU - Gray, Joshua C.
AU - Zhang, Xijun
AU - Wang, Jiawei
AU - Girgenti, Matthew J.
AU - Alba, Camille
AU - Sukumar, Gauthaman
AU - Lott, Nathaniel M.
AU - Naifeh, James A.
AU - Aliaga, Pablo
AU - Kessler, Ronald C.
AU - Turner, Clesson
AU - Pollard, Harvey B.
AU - Dalgard, Clifton L.
AU - Ursano, Robert J.
AU - Stein, Murray B.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023
PY - 2024/7/1
Y1 - 2024/7/1
N2 - Background: Suicide is a societal and public health concern of global scale. Identifying genetic risk factors for suicide attempt can characterize underlying biology and enable early interventions to prevent deaths. Recent studies have described common genetic variants for suicide-related behaviors. Here, we advance this search for genetic risk by analyzing the association between suicide attempt and uncommon variation exome-wide in a large, ancestrally diverse sample. Methods: We sequenced whole genomes of 13,584 soldiers from the Army STARRS (Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers), including 979 individuals with a history of suicide attempt. Uncommon, nonsilent protein–coding variants were analyzed exome-wide for association with suicide attempt using gene-collapsed and single-variant analyses. Results: We identified 19 genes with variants enriched in individuals with history of suicide attempt, either through gene-collapsed or single-variant analysis (Bonferroni padjusted < .05). These genes were CIB2, MLF1, HERC1, YWHAE, RCN2, VWA5B1, ATAD3A, NACA, EP400, ZNF585A, LYST, RC3H2, PSD3, STARD9, SGMS1, ACTR6, RGS7BP, DIRAS2, and KRTAP10-1. Most genes had variants across multiple genomic ancestry groups. Seventeen of these genes were expressed in healthy brain tissue, with 9 genes expressed at the highest levels in the brain versus other tissues. Brains from individuals deceased from suicide aberrantly expressed RGS7BP (padjusted = .035) in addition to nominally significant genes including YWHAE and ACTR6, all of which have reported associations with other mental disorders. Conclusions: These results advance the molecular characterization of suicide attempt behavior and support the utility of whole-genome sequencing for complementing the findings of genome-wide association studies in suicide research.
AB - Background: Suicide is a societal and public health concern of global scale. Identifying genetic risk factors for suicide attempt can characterize underlying biology and enable early interventions to prevent deaths. Recent studies have described common genetic variants for suicide-related behaviors. Here, we advance this search for genetic risk by analyzing the association between suicide attempt and uncommon variation exome-wide in a large, ancestrally diverse sample. Methods: We sequenced whole genomes of 13,584 soldiers from the Army STARRS (Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers), including 979 individuals with a history of suicide attempt. Uncommon, nonsilent protein–coding variants were analyzed exome-wide for association with suicide attempt using gene-collapsed and single-variant analyses. Results: We identified 19 genes with variants enriched in individuals with history of suicide attempt, either through gene-collapsed or single-variant analysis (Bonferroni padjusted < .05). These genes were CIB2, MLF1, HERC1, YWHAE, RCN2, VWA5B1, ATAD3A, NACA, EP400, ZNF585A, LYST, RC3H2, PSD3, STARD9, SGMS1, ACTR6, RGS7BP, DIRAS2, and KRTAP10-1. Most genes had variants across multiple genomic ancestry groups. Seventeen of these genes were expressed in healthy brain tissue, with 9 genes expressed at the highest levels in the brain versus other tissues. Brains from individuals deceased from suicide aberrantly expressed RGS7BP (padjusted = .035) in addition to nominally significant genes including YWHAE and ACTR6, all of which have reported associations with other mental disorders. Conclusions: These results advance the molecular characterization of suicide attempt behavior and support the utility of whole-genome sequencing for complementing the findings of genome-wide association studies in suicide research.
KW - Exome
KW - Genetics
KW - Genomics
KW - Military
KW - Suicide
KW - Whole-genome sequencing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85187245969&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.12.008
DO - 10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.12.008
M3 - Article
C2 - 38141912
AN - SCOPUS:85187245969
SN - 0006-3223
VL - 96
SP - 15
EP - 25
JO - Biological Psychiatry
JF - Biological Psychiatry
IS - 1
ER -