Genetic study links components of the autonomous nervous system to heart-rate profile during exercise

Heart rate (HR) responds to exercise by increasing during exercise and recovering after exercise. As such, HR is an important predictor of mortality that researchers believe is modulated by the autonomic nervous system. However, the mechanistic basis underlying inter-individual differences has yet to be explained. Here, we perform a large-scale genome-wide analysis of HR increase and HR recovery in 58,818 UK Biobank individuals. Twenty-five independent SNPs in 23 loci are identified to be associated (p