Myopia is the most common human eye disorder and it results from complex genetic and environmental causes. The rapidly increasing prevalence of myopia poses a major public health challenge. Here, the CREAM consortium performs a joint meta-analysis to test single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) main effects and SNP × education interaction effects on refractive error in 40,036 adults from 25 studies of European ancestry and 10,315 adults from 9 studies of Asian ancestry. In European ancestry individuals, we identify six novel loci (FAM150B-ACP1, LINC00340, FBN1, DIS3L-MAP2K1, ARID2-SNAT1 and SLC14A2) associated with refractive error. In Asian populations, three genome-wide significant loci AREG, GABRR1 and PDE10A also exhibit strong interactions with education (P<8.5 × 10−5), whereas the interactions are less evident in Europeans. The discovery of these loci represents an important advance in understanding how gene and environment interactions contribute to the heterogeneity of myopia.

Purpose To describe the methods for family and case-control recruitment for a multi-center genetic and associated heritability analysis of Fuchs’ Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy (FECD). Methods Twenty-nine enrolling sites with 62 trained investigators and coordinators gathered individual and family information, graded the phenotype, and collected blood and/or saliva for genetic analysis on all individuals with and without FECD. The degree of FECD was assessed in a 0–6 semi-quantitative scale using standardized clinical methods with pathologic verification of FECD on at least one member of each family. Central corneal thickness was measured by ultrasonic pachymetry. Results Three hundred twenty-two families with 330 affected sibling pairs with FECD were enrolled, and included a total of 650 sibling pairs of all disease grades. Using the entire 0–6 step FECD grading scale or a dichotomous definition of severe disease, heritability was assessed in families via sib-sib correlations. Both binary indicators of severe disease as well as semi-quantitative measures of disease severity were significantly heritable, with heritability estimates of 30% for severe disease, 37–39% for FECD score and 47% for central corneal thickness. Conclusion Genetic risk factors have a strong role in the severity of the FECD phenotype and corneal thickness. Genotyping this cohort with high-density genetic markers followed by appropriate statistical analyses should lead to novel loci for disease susceptibility.