The genetics of dizygotic twinning in Africans, Asians and Europeans; relationship to female infertility.

This project is suitable for PhD students.

BACKGROUND

Dizygotic (DZ, nonidentical) twinning runs in families and various family and pedigree studies have shown it to have a genetic component around 20-30%. Recent GWAS of over 8000 mothers of DZ twins of European ancestry has found at least 6 genes influencing this trait, most with obvious functional significance. But these genes do a poor job of predicting twinning rates in non-European populations, particularly in Africans who have an extremely high DZT rate (20-40 per thousand maternities] and East Asians who have an extremely low rate (2/1000); for comparison, Europeans are 8/1000.

AIM

To explore the genetics of DZ twinning in Africans and Asians and to investigate the relationship with female infertility.

METHOD

To carry out GWAS for DZT twinning in Nigerian and Korean populations and compare gene frequencies and effect sizes with Europeans. To perform GWAS on women with anovulatory infertility.

PROJECT POTENTIAL

We have preliminary evidence that the genes that predispose to DZT are also involved in female infertility and that our work on DZT will enable development of a predictive test for female infertility which women can take account of in their family planning. For example, a young woman finding that she is at risk of infertility may choose to freeze some of her eggs when she is young.