In order to identify novel variants involved in primary tooth eruption, we doubled the size of our previous population-based genome-wide association meta-analysis, increasing our sample to include 5998 and 6609 individuals from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) for ‘age at first tooth’ and ‘number of teeth’, and a further 5403 individuals from the 1966 Northern Finland Birth Cohort (NFBC1966). SNPs that met the criteria for genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10−8) were then assessed for association with other related phenotypes, including measures of craniofacial shape and size, secondary tooth eruption, and height. The aim of our study was to (i) identify novel genetic loci associated with tooth eruption, and (ii) to investigate whether variants associated with tooth development exhibited pleiotropic effects on growth in general. Specifically, we examined the relationship between tooth-associated loci and eruption of secondary teeth, height, craniofacial size and shape, as well as possible relationships between known height-associated loci and tooth eruption.
