Identification of 15 loci influencing height in a Korean population

Height is a complex genetic trait that involves multiple genetic loci. Recently, 44 loci associated with height were identified in Caucasian individuals by large-scale genome-wide association (GWA) studies. To identify genetic variants influencing height in the Korean population, we analyzed GWA data from 8842 Korean individuals and identified 15 genomic regions with one or more sequence variants associated with height (P<1 × 10^-5). Of these, eight loci were newly identified in Koreans (SUPT3H, EXT1, FREM1, PALM2-AKAP2, NUP37-PMCH, IGF1, KRT20 and ANKRD60). The 15 significant loci account for approximately 1.0% of height variation, with a 3.7-cm difference between individuals with ≤8 height-increasing alleles (5.1%) and ≥19 height-increasing alleles (4.2%). We also examined the associations between height loci and idiopathic short stature (ISS). Five loci (SPAG17, KBTBD8, HHIP, HIST1H1D and ACAN) were significantly associated with ISS (uncorrected P<0.05), indicating that height-associated genes in the adult population are involved in extreme cases of short stature in children. This study validates previous reports of loci associated with human height and identified novel candidate regions involved in human growth and development.