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The electrocardiographic PR interval reflects atrioventricular conduction, and is associated with conduction abnormalities, pacemaker implantation, atrial fibrillation (AF), and cardiovascular mortality. Here we report a multi-ancestry (N = 293,051) genome-wide association meta-analysis for the PR interval, discovering 202 loci of which 141 have not previously been reported. Variants at identified loci increase the percentage of heritability explained, from 33.5% to 62.6%. We observe enrichment for cardiac muscle developmental/contractile and cytoskeletal genes, highlighting key regulation processes for atrioventricular conduction. Additionally, 8 loci not previously reported harbor genes underlying inherited arrhythmic syndromes and/or cardiomyopathies suggesting a role for these genes in cardiovascular pathology in the general population. We show that polygenic predisposition to PR interval duration is an endophenotype for cardiovascular disease, including distal conduction disease, AF, and atrioventricular pre-excitation. These findings advance our understanding of the polygenic basis of cardiac conduction, and the genetic relationship between PR interval duration and cardiovascular disease.

Original publication

DOI

10.1038/s41467-020-15706-x

Type

Journal article

Journal

Nature communications

Publication Date

05/2020

Volume

11

Addresses

William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.

Keywords

Humans, Cardiovascular Diseases, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Electrocardiography, Gene Expression, Multifactorial Inheritance, Quantitative Trait Loci, Female, Male, Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genetic Loci, Endophenotypes