Evaluating the transferability of 15 European-derived fasting plasma glucose SNPs in Mexican children and adolescents

Genome wide association studies (GWAS) have identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with fasting plasma glucose (FPG) in adult European populations. The contribution of these SNPs to FPG in non-Europeans and children is unclear. We studied the association of 15 GWAS SNPs and a genotype score (GS) with FPG and 7 metabolic traits in 1,421 Mexican children and adolescents from Mexico City. Genotyping of the 15 SNPs was performed using TaqMan Open Array. We used multivariate linear regression models adjusted for age, sex, body mass index standard deviation score, and recruitment center. We identified significant associations between 3 SNPs (G6PC2 (rs560887), GCKR (rs1260326), MTNR1B (rs10830963)), the GS and FPG level. The FPG risk alleles of 11 out of the 15 SNPs (73.3%) displayed significant or non-significant beta values for FPG directionally consistent with those reported in adult European GWAS. The risk allele frequencies for 11 of 15 (73.3%) SNPs differed significantly in Mexican children and adolescents compared to European adults from the 1000G Project, but no significant enrichment in FPG risk alleles was observed in the Mexican population. Our data support a partial transferability of European GWAS FPG association signals in children and adolescents from the admixed Mexican population.