Genome-wide association study of exercise behavior in dutch and american adults

Introduction: The objective of this study was to identify genetic variants that are associated with adult leisure time exercise behavior using genome-wide association (GWA) in two independent samples. Methods: Exercise behavior was measured in 1644 unrelated Dutch and 978 unrelated American adults of European ancestry with detailed questions about type, frequency, and duration of exercise. Individuals were classified into regular exercisers or nonexercisers using a threshold of 4 MET•h (metabolic equivalents-hours per week). GWA analyses of ∼1.6 million observed and imputed Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) were conducted in both samples independently using logistic regression in SNPTEST, including sex, age, and body mass index as covariates. A meta-analysis of the results was performed using the weighted inverse variance method in METAL. Results: Thirty-seven novel SNPs in the PAPSS2 gene and in two intergenic regions on chromosomes 2q33.1 and 18p11.32 were associated with exercise participation (pooled P values