A Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies a Locus for Nonsyndromic Cleft Lip with or without Cleft Palate on 8q24

ObjectiveTo identify, in a non-hypothesis manner, novel genetic factors associated with nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (NSCL/P).Study designWe performed a genome-wide association study in a pediatric cohort of European decent consisting of 111 NSCL/P cases and 5951 control subjects. All subjects were consecutively recruited from the Greater Philadelphia area from 2006 to 2009. High throughput genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping was carried out with the Illumina Infinium II HumanHap550 BeadChip technology.ResultsWe observed association at the genome-wide significance level with SNP rs987525 at a locus on 8q24, which harbors no characterized genes to date (P = 9.18 × 10−8; odds ratio = 2.09, 95% confidence interval = 1.59 to 2.76). While searching for a replication cohort, the same genetic determinant was established through a genome-wide association study of NSCL/P in Germany, so this previous report acts as a de novo replication for our independent observation outlined here.ConclusionsThese results strongly suggest that a locus on 8q24 is involved in the pathogenesis of NSCL/P.