Genetic Epidemiology - Aging Traits In Korean Population

Lee, Joseph

Abstract

The major aim of this proposal is to characterize how interaction between gene and environment influences complex aging phenotypes. To this end, we need to better understand the biology of aging. We propose three ideas to maximize the likelihood of success: first, we propose a migrant study of Korean populations that live in disparate environments to maximize power to detect gene-environment interaction; second, we propose to study quantitative traits rather than disease end points to strengthen the genotypephenotype relations; third, we propose to study all age groups, not just the elderly, to better understand the entire biological process of aging. Here, we propose to study Koreans in Kazakhstan, Koreans in South Korea, and Korean adoptees in Sweden. These three groups of Koreans have been exposed to three distinct sets of environment due to historical, economical and political reasons, and their phenotypic expressions are shown to differ. In this pilot grant, we will utilize these three populations to address the following questions: (1) is it possible to recruit ethnic Korean probands and their fathers in Kazakhstan; (2) how phenotypically different are e ethnic Koreans in Kazakhstan, compared with South Koreans and Korean adoptees in Sweden; (3) which phenotypes show high familiality; and (4) are the allelic frequencies for apolipoprotein and Angiotensinconverting enzyme genes comparable to other populations. This study will provide a unique opportunity to study complex aging phenotypes. This can lead to a novel family-based migrant study that will take advantage of the family-based component (that maximize power to map genes) and the migrant component (that maximize power to detect gene-environment interaction). This should be an even more powerful study design to examine complex aging phenotypes. In addition, we have collaborators in S. Korea and in Sweden already have datasets that can be used as comparison groups; further, collaborators in Moscow have extensive experience in studies of genetics and psychiatry of the Korean populations.