Heritability of Human Plasma N‑Glycome

• Published in: Journal of proteome research Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 85 - 91
• Main Authors: Zaytseva, Olga O, Freidin, Maxim B, Keser, Toma, Štambuk, Jerko, Ugrina, Ivo, Šimurina, Mirna, Vilaj, Marija, Štambuk, Tamara, Trbojević-Akmačić, Irena, Pučić-Baković, Maja, Lauc, Gordan, Williams, Frances M. K, Novokmet, Mislav
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 03.01.2020
• Subjects: N-glycosylation; heritability of glycosylation; human plasma glycome; glycan analysis
• ISSN: 1535-3893; 1535-3907
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.9b00348

The N-glycosylation profile of total human plasma proteins could be a useful biomarker for various pathological states. Reliable high-throughput methods for such profiling have been developed. However, studies of relative importance of genetic and environmental factors in regulating plasma N-glycome are scarce. The aim of our study was to determine the role of genetic factors in phenotypic variation of plasma N-glycan profile through the estimates of its heritability. Thirty-nine total plasma N-glycome traits were analyzed in 2816 individuals from the TwinsUK data set. For the majority of the traits, high heritability estimates (>50%) were obtained pointing at a significant contribution of genetic factors in plasma N-glycome variation, especially for glycans mostly attached to immunoglobulins. We have also found several structures with higher environmental contribution to their variation.