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Hand grip strength is a widely used proxy of muscular fitness, a marker of frailty, and predictor of a range of morbidities and all-cause mortality. To investigate the genetic determinants of variation in grip strength, we perform a large-scale genetic discovery analysis in a combined sample of 195,180 individuals and identify 16 loci associated with grip strength (P<5 × 10-8) in combined analyses. A number of these loci contain genes implicated in structure and function of skeletal muscle fibres (ACTG1), neuronal maintenance and signal transduction (PEX14, TGFA, SYT1), or monogenic syndromes with involvement of psychomotor impairment (PEX14, LRPPRC and KANSL1). Mendelian randomization analyses are consistent with a causal effect of higher genetically predicted grip strength on lower fracture risk. In conclusion, our findings provide new biological insight into the mechanistic underpinnings of grip strength and the causal role of muscular strength in age-related morbidities and mortality.

Original publication

DOI

10.1038/ncomms16015

Type

Journal article

Journal

Nat Commun

Publication Date

12/07/2017

Volume

8

Keywords

Actins, Adult, Aged, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetics, Population, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hand, Hand Strength, Humans, Male, Membrane Proteins, Middle Aged, Neoplasm Proteins, Nuclear Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Repressor Proteins, Transforming Growth Factor alpha, United Kingdom