IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-58506-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gene clusters linked to insulin resistance identified in a genome-wide study of the Taiwan Biobank population

Author

Listed:
  • Eugene Lin

    (University of Washington
    China Medical University)

  • Yu-Ting Yan

    (National Taiwan University)

  • Mu-Hong Chen

    (Taipei Veterans General Hospital
    National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University)

  • Albert C. Yang

    (National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
    Taipei Veterans General Hospital)

  • Po-Hsiu Kuo

    (National Taiwan University
    National Taiwan University Hospital)

  • Shih-Jen Tsai

    (Taipei Veterans General Hospital
    National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
    National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University)

Abstract

This pioneering genome-wide association study examined surrogate markers for insulin resistance (IR) in 147,880 Taiwanese individuals using data from the Taiwan Biobank. The study focused on two IR surrogate markers: the triglyceride to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG:HDL-C) ratio and the TyG index (the product of fasting plasma glucose and triglycerides). We identified genome-wide significance loci within four gene clusters: GCKR, MLXIPL, APOA5, and APOC1, uncovering 197 genes associated with IR. Transcriptome-wide association analysis revealed significant associations between these clusters and TyG, primarily in adipose tissue. Gene ontology analysis highlighted pathways related to Alzheimer’s disease, glucose homeostasis, insulin resistance, and lipoprotein dynamics. The study identified sex-specific genes associated with TyG. Polygenic risk score analysis linked both IR markers to gout and hyperlipidemia. Our findings elucidate the complex relationships between IR surrogate markers, genetic predisposition, and disease phenotypes in the Taiwanese population, contributing valuable insights to the field of metabolic research.

Suggested Citation

  • Eugene Lin & Yu-Ting Yan & Mu-Hong Chen & Albert C. Yang & Po-Hsiu Kuo & Shih-Jen Tsai, 2025. "Gene clusters linked to insulin resistance identified in a genome-wide study of the Taiwan Biobank population," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-14, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58506-x
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58506-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58506-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-58506-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tian Ge & Chia-Yen Chen & Yang Ni & Yen-Chen Anne Feng & Jordan W. Smoller, 2019. "Polygenic prediction via Bayesian regression and continuous shrinkage priors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Fotios Koskeridis & Evangelos Evangelou & Saredo Said & Joseph J. Boyle & Paul Elliott & Abbas Dehghan & Ioanna Tzoulaki, 2022. "Pleiotropic genetic architecture and novel loci for C-reactive protein levels," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Genevieve L. Wojcik & Mariaelisa Graff & Katherine K. Nishimura & Ran Tao & Jeffrey Haessler & Christopher R. Gignoux & Heather M. Highland & Yesha M. Patel & Elena P. Sorokin & Christy L. Avery & Gil, 2019. "Genetic analyses of diverse populations improves discovery for complex traits," Nature, Nature, vol. 570(7762), pages 514-518, June.
    4. Cassandra N. Spracklen & Momoko Horikoshi & Young Jin Kim & Kuang Lin & Fiona Bragg & Sanghoon Moon & Ken Suzuki & Claudia H. T. Tam & Yasuharu Tabara & Soo-Heon Kwak & Fumihiko Takeuchi & Jirong Long, 2020. "Identification of type 2 diabetes loci in 433,540 East Asian individuals," Nature, Nature, vol. 582(7811), pages 240-245, June.
    5. Gao Wang & Abhishek Sarkar & Peter Carbonetto & Matthew Stephens, 2020. "A simple new approach to variable selection in regression, with application to genetic fine mapping," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 82(5), pages 1273-1300, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tzu-Ting Chen & Jaeyoung Kim & Max Lam & Yi-Fang Chuang & Yen-Ling Chiu & Shu-Chin Lin & Sang-Hyuk Jung & Beomsu Kim & Soyeon Kim & Chamlee Cho & Injeong Shim & Sanghyeon Park & Yeeun Ahn & Aysu Okbay, 2024. "Shared genetic architectures of educational attainment in East Asian and European populations," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 8(3), pages 562-575, March.
    2. Isabelle Austin-Zimmerman & Daniel F. Levey & Olga Giannakopoulou & Joseph D. Deak & Marco Galimberti & Keyrun Adhikari & Hang Zhou & Spiros Denaxas & Haritz Irizar & Karoline Kuchenbaecker & Andrew M, 2023. "Genome-wide association studies and cross-population meta-analyses investigating short and long sleep duration," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Yunfeng Huang & Dora Bodnar & Chia-Yen Chen & Gabriela Sanchez-Andrade & Mark Sanderson & Jun Shi & Katherine G. Meilleur & Matthew E. Hurles & Sebastian S. Gerety & Ellen A. Tsai & Heiko Runz, 2023. "Rare genetic variants impact muscle strength," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    4. Priya Gupta & Marco Galimberti & Yue Liu & Sarah Beck & Aliza Wingo & Thomas Wingo & Keyrun Adhikari & Henry R. Kranzler & Murray B. Stein & Joel Gelernter & Daniel F. Levey, 2024. "A genome-wide investigation into the underlying genetic architecture of personality traits and overlap with psychopathology," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 8(11), pages 2235-2249, November.
    5. Bryan R. Gorman & Sun-Gou Ji & Michael Francis & Anoop K. Sendamarai & Yunling Shi & Poornima Devineni & Uma Saxena & Elizabeth Partan & Andrea K. DeVito & Jinyoung Byun & Younghun Han & Xiangjun Xiao, 2024. "Multi-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses of lung cancer reveal susceptibility loci and elucidate smoking-independent genetic risk," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    6. Jingning Zhang & Jianan Zhan & Jin Jin & Cheng Ma & Ruzhang Zhao & Jared O’Connell & Yunxuan Jiang & Bertram L. Koelsch & Haoyu Zhang & Nilanjan Chatterjee, 2024. "An ensemble penalized regression method for multi-ancestry polygenic risk prediction," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Leqi Xu & Geyu Zhou & Wei Jiang & Haoyu Zhang & Yikai Dong & Leying Guan & Hongyu Zhao, 2025. "JointPRS: A data-adaptive framework for multi-population genetic risk prediction incorporating genetic correlation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-20, December.
    8. Alesha A. Hatton & Fei-Fei Cheng & Tian Lin & Ren-Juan Shen & Jie Chen & Zhili Zheng & Jia Qu & Fan Lyu & Sarah E. Harris & Simon R. Cox & Zi-Bing Jin & Nicholas G. Martin & Dongsheng Fan & Grant W. M, 2024. "Genetic control of DNA methylation is largely shared across European and East Asian populations," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    9. Jiacheng Miao & Hanmin Guo & Gefei Song & Zijie Zhao & Lin Hou & Qiongshi Lu, 2023. "Quantifying portable genetic effects and improving cross-ancestry genetic prediction with GWAS summary statistics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    10. Alexandra Barry & Michelle T. McNulty & Xiaoyuan Jia & Yask Gupta & Hanna Debiec & Yang Luo & China Nagano & Tomoko Horinouchi & Seulgi Jung & Manuela Colucci & Dina F. Ahram & Adele Mitrotti & Aditi , 2023. "Multi-population genome-wide association study implicates immune and non-immune factors in pediatric steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    11. Yi-Jia Huang & Chun-houh Chen & Hsin-Chou Yang, 2024. "AI-enhanced integration of genetic and medical imaging data for risk assessment of Type 2 diabetes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    12. Xinruo Zhang & Jennifer A. Brody & Mariaelisa Graff & Heather M. Highland & Nathalie Chami & Hanfei Xu & Zhe Wang & Kendra R. Ferrier & Geetha Chittoor & Navya Shilpa Josyula & Mariah Meyer & Shreyash, 2025. "Whole genome sequencing analysis of body mass index identifies novel African ancestry-specific risk allele," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-15, December.
    13. Natalie DeForest & Yuqi Wang & Zhiyi Zhu & Jacqueline S. Dron & Ryan Koesterer & Pradeep Natarajan & Jason Flannick & Tiffany Amariuta & Gina M. Peloso & Amit R. Majithia, 2024. "Genome-wide discovery and integrative genomic characterization of insulin resistance loci using serum triglycerides to HDL-cholesterol ratio as a proxy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    14. Sylvia Hartmann & Summaira Yasmeen & Benjamin M. Jacobs & Spiros Denaxas & Munir Pirmohamed & Eric R. Gamazon & Mark J. Caulfield & Harry Hemingway & Maik Pietzner & Claudia Langenberg, 2023. "ADRA2A and IRX1 are putative risk genes for Raynaud’s phenomenon," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    15. Katrina G. Claw & Casey R. Dorr & Erica L. Woodahl, 2024. "Implementing community-engaged pharmacogenomics in Indigenous communities," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-5, December.
    16. Chen Wang & Havell Markus & Avantika R. Diwadkar & Chachrit Khunsriraksakul & Laura Carrel & Bingshan Li & Xue Zhong & Xingyan Wang & Xiaowei Zhan & Galen T. Foulke & Nancy J. Olsen & Dajiang J. Liu &, 2025. "Integrating electronic health records and GWAS summary statistics to predict the progression of autoimmune diseases from preclinical stages," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-17, December.
    17. Yash Patel & Jean Shin & Eeva Sliz & Ariana Tang & Aniket Mishra & Rui Xia & Edith Hofer & Hema Sekhar Reddy Rajula & Ruiqi Wang & Frauke Beyer & Katrin Horn & Max Riedl & Jing Yu & Henry Völzke & Rob, 2024. "Genetic risk factors underlying white matter hyperintensities and cortical atrophy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    18. Michael G. Levin & Noah L. Tsao & Pankhuri Singhal & Chang Liu & Ha My T. Vy & Ishan Paranjpe & Joshua D. Backman & Tiffany R. Bellomo & William P. Bone & Kiran J. Biddinger & Qin Hui & Ozan Dikilitas, 2022. "Genome-wide association and multi-trait analyses characterize the common genetic architecture of heart failure," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    19. Ruoyu Tian & Tian Ge & Hyeokmoon Kweon & Daniel B. Rocha & Max Lam & Jimmy Z. Liu & Kritika Singh & Daniel F. Levey & Joel Gelernter & Murray B. Stein & Ellen A. Tsai & Hailiang Huang & Christopher F., 2024. "Whole-exome sequencing in UK Biobank reveals rare genetic architecture for depression," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    20. Magdalena Zimoń & Yunfeng Huang & Anthi Trasta & Aliaksandr Halavatyi & Jimmy Z. Liu & Chia-Yen Chen & Peter Blattmann & Bernd Klaus & Christopher D. Whelan & David Sexton & Sally John & Wolfgang Hube, 2021. "Pairwise effects between lipid GWAS genes modulate lipid plasma levels and cellular uptake," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58506-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.