Association of Measures of Muscle Density and SNPs in Homologs of Muscle Function Genes in C.elegans

Abstract

Sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass and strength that occurs with aging, has a crucial role in development of frailty. Although sarcopenia and other muscle-related traits are heritable, the underlying genetic variation contributing to the development of sarcopenia is unclear. Our aim was to assess whether there is a relationship between >700 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) total in 27 genes (14 genes identified from C. elegans and 13 genes in the mevalonate and ubiquinone pathways) and six traits related to sarcopenia using data from the HealthABC cohort. No SNPs were statistically significant at the experiment-wide p-value (p< 0.00001). SNPs in the locus MAGOHB were associated with THIMF, THMUSD, and TOTPF in European Americans, whereas SNPs in CYP3A5 were associated with these traits in African Americans (p<0.01 for all). Furthermore, SNPs in GOLGA4 (P<0.01) and RALGABP (P<0.001) were associated with TOTPF in African Americans, and SNPs in RALGABP were also associated with THIMF and TOTLEAN in African Americans. The results indicate that variation in some genes related to development of muscle-wasting in an animal model, C.elegans, may have pleiotropic effects on traits related to sarcopenia in older men and women.

Keywords: Sarcopenia, C.elegans, association, Health ABC