GIANT consortium

GIANT: Genetic Investigation of ANthropometric Traits

The Genetic Investigation of ANthropometric Traits (GIANT) consortium is an international collaboration that seeks to identify genetic loci that modulate human body size and shape, including height and measures of obesity. The GIANT consortium is a collaboration between investigators from many different groups, institutions, countries, and studies, and the results represent their combined efforts. The primary approach has been meta-analysis of genome-wide association data and other large-scale genetic data sets. Anthropometric traits that have been studied by GIANT include body mass index (BMI), height, and traits related to waist circumference (such as waist-hip ratio adjusted for BMI, or WHRadjBMI). Thus far, the GIANT consortium has identified common genetic variants at hundreds of loci that are associated with anthropometric traits.

Data Release

We are releasing the summary data from our meta-analyses of GWAS data, in order to enable other researchers to examine particular variants or loci for their evidence of association with anthropometric traits. The files include p-values and direction of effect at over 2 million directly genotyped or imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). To prevent the possibility of identification of individuals from these summary results, we are not releasing allele frequency data from our samples.

Click here to create regional association plots from GIANT data using LocusZoom

Then select "Plot Using Published GWAS Results"

Selected Recent Publications

• Yengo L, Vedantam S, Marouli E, et al. (2022). A saturated map of common genetic variants associated with human height. Nature 610, 704-712.

• Pulit SL et al. (2019). Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for body fat distribution in 694,649 individuals of European ancestry. Nature 28, 166-174.

• Yengo L, Sidorenko J, Kemper KE, Zheng Z, Wood AR, Weedon MN, Frayling TM, Hirschhorn J, Yang J, Visscher PM; GIANT Consortium (2018). Genetic studies of body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology. Hum Mol Genet 27, 3641-3649.

• Ried JS et al. (2016). A principal component meta-analysis on multiple anthropometric traits identifies novel loci for body shape. Nature Commun 23, 13357.

• Locke AE, Kahali B, Berndt SI, Justice AE, Pers TH, Day FR, Powell C, Vedantam S, Buchkovich ML, Yang J, Croteau-Chonka DC, Esko T et al. (2015). Genetic studies of body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology. Nature 518, 197-206.

• Shungin D, Winkler TW, Croteau-Chonka DC, Ferreira T, Locke AE, Magi R, Strawbridge R, Pers TH, Fischer K, Justice AE, Workalemahu T, Wu JM, et al. (2015). New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution. Nature 518, 187-196.

• Wood AR, Esko T, Yang J, Vedantam S, Pers TH, Gustafsson S, Chu AY, Estrada K, Luan J, Kutalik Z, et al. (2014). Defining the role of common variation in the genomic and biological architecture of adult human height (2014). Nature Genetics 46, 1173-86.

• Berndt SI, Gustafsson S, Mägi R, Ganna A, Wheeler E, Feitosa MF, Justice AE, Monda KL, Croteau-Chonka DC, Day FR, et al. (2013). Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies 11 new loci for anthropometric traits and provides insights into genetic architecture. Nature Genetics 45, 501-512.

• Randall JC, Winkler TW, Kutalik Z, Berndt SI, Jackson AU, Monda KL, Kilpeläinen TO, Esko T, Mägi R, Li S, et al. (2013). Sex-stratified genome-wide association studies including 270,000 individuals show sexual dimorphism in genetic loci for anthropometric traits. PLoS Genet 9, e1003500.

• Yang J, Loos RJ, Powell JE, Medland SE, Speliotes EK, Chasman DI, Rose LM, Thorleifsson G, Steinthorsdottir V, Mägi R, et al. (2012). FTO genotype is associated with phenotypic variability of body mass index. Nature 490, 267-272.

• Heid, I.M., Jackson, A.U., Randall, J.C., Winkler, T.W., Qi, L., Steinthorsdottir, V., Thorleifsson, G., Zillikens, M.C., Speliotes, E.K., Magi, R., et al. (2010). Meta-analysis identifies 13 new loci associated with waist-hip ratio and reveals sexual dimorphism in the genetic basis of fat distribution. Nat Genet 42, 949-960.

• Lango Allen, H., Estrada, K., Lettre, G., Berndt, S.I., Weedon, M.N., Rivadeneira, F., Willer, C.J., Jackson, A.U., Vedantam, S., Raychaudhuri, S., et al. (2010). Hundreds of variants clustered in genomic loci and biological pathways affect human height. Nature 467, 832-838.

• Lindgren, C.M., Heid, I.M., Randall, J.C., Lamina, C., Steinthorsdottir, V., Qi, L., Speliotes, E.K., Thorleifsson, G., Willer, C.J., Herrera, B.M., et al. (2009). Genome-wide association scan meta-analysis identifies three Loci influencing adiposity and fat distribution. PLoS Genet 5, e1000508.

• Speliotes, E.K., Willer, C.J., Berndt, S.I., Monda, K.L., Thorleifsson, G., Jackson, A.U., Allen, H.L., Lindgren, C.M., Luan, J., Magi, R., et al. (2010). Association analyses of 249,796 individuals reveal 18 new loci associated with body mass index. Nat Genet 42, 937-948.

• Willer, C.J., Speliotes, E.K., Loos, R.J., Li, S., Lindgren, C.M., Heid, I.M., Berndt, S.I., Elliott, A.L., Jackson, A.U., Lamina, C., et al. (2009). Six new loci associated with body mass index highlight a neuronal influence on body weight regulation. Nat Genet 41, 25-34.

Participating Cohorts and Research Groups

A growing list of collaborating cohorts and groups may be found here.