For SNP selection within each candidate gene, we used a beta version of the Snagger software (73). We used HapMap SNP data from the CEPH and Chinese populations [Genome Build 35 (74)]. Because several of our selected candidate genes are located adjacent to each other on a chromosome, we performed our tagSNP selection across 54 regions of interest, expanding each region 10 kb upstream and downstream. Of the 1295 SNPs selected, 118 were of interest because of their putative function and, conditional on including these, an additional 1185 SNPs were selected to capture the underlying genetic structure. For each SNP in a gene, an LD bin was created containing all SNPs in the gene region meeting an r2 threshold of 0.95 with that specific SNP. From these bins, we preferentially selected tag SNPs using several criteria: Illumina design scores (quantifying how well a SNP can be genotyped), validation status (indicating how many platforms validate a SNP), minor allele frequency (MAF), and location (i.e. coding region). To ensure efficient Illumina genotyping, a potential tagSNP would not be selected if it was
