To identify genetic variants influencing adiponectin levels, we performed a GWAS utilizing information from population-based cohorts including, in total, 14,733 subjects of European descent (Table 1). We identified 5 variants at 2 loci that achieved genome-wide significance (P≤5×10−8) for their relationship with circulating adiponectin levels (Table 2). The SNP most strongly associated with circulating adiponectin levels lies 30 kb upstream of the ADIPOQ locus (rs266717; P-combined = 9.2×10−19) (Table 2, Figure S1, Figure S2). In total, 4 SNPs at the ADIPOQ locus demonstrated genome-wide significant associations with circulating adiponectin. All 8 studies contributed to these genome-wide significant associations, with the exception of rs6444175, which demonstrated some heterogeneity across cohorts (Table 2).
