Publisher Correction: Novel pleiotropic risk loci for melanoma and nevus density implicate multiple biological pathways.

The original version of this Article contained errors in the spelling of the authors Fan Liu and M. Arfan Ikram, which were incorrectly given as Fan Lui and Arfan M. Ikram.

Novel pleiotropic risk loci for melanoma and nevus density implicate multiple biological pathways.

The total number of acquired melanocytic nevi on the skin is strongly correlated with melanoma risk. Here we report a meta-analysis of 11 nevus GWAS from Australia, Netherlands, UK, and USA comprising 52,506 individuals. We confirm known loci including MTAP, PLA2G6, and IRF4, and detect novel SNPs in KITLG and a region of 9q32.

Genome-Wide Association Shows that Pigmentation Genes Play a Role in Skin Aging.

Loss of fine skin patterning is a sign of both aging and photoaging. Studies investigating the genetic contribution to skin patterning offer an opportunity to better understand a trait that influences both physical appearance and risk of keratinocyte skin cancer. We undertook a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of a measure of skin pattern (microtopography score) damage in 1,671 twin pairs and 1,745 singletons (N = 5,087) drawn from three independent cohorts.

Positive Association Between Vitamin D Serum Levels and Naevus Counts.

Lower vitamin D serum levels are linked to increased melanoma risk and poorer survival. Naevus counts are associated with both melanoma risk and survival and to leucocyte telomere length. Vitamin D is also linked to telomere biology with higher levels of vitamin D in individuals with longer leucocyte telomere length despite adjusting for age.

Genetic epidemiology of melanoma.

The field of melanoma genetics is moving at great pace with new platforms to investigate single nucleotide polymorphism, genome sequencing, gene expression, and methylation. Melanoma incidence is still rising mainly because of screening campaigns, which has increased the number of reported melanomas. However, mortality due to melanoma is not decreasing.

What Is New in Melanoma Genetics and Treatment?

New therapies for advanced melanoma have led to major advances, which, for the first time, showed improved survival for patients with this very challenging neoplasm. These new treatments are based on gene-targeted therapies or stimulation of immune responses. However, these treatments are not without challenges in terms of resistance and toxicity.

The Prevalence of Peyronie's Disease in the United States: A Population-Based Study.

Peyronie's disease (PD) is a connective tissue disorder which can result in penile deformity. The prevalence of diagnosed PD in the United States (US) has been estimated to be 0.5% in adult males, but there is limited additional information comparing definitive and probable PD cases.

Pathway-based factor analysis of gene expression data produces highly heritable phenotypes that associate with age.

Statistical factor analysis methods have previously been used to remove noise components from high-dimensional data prior to genetic association mapping and, in a guided fashion, to summarize biologically relevant sources of variation. Here, we show how the derived factors summarizing pathway expression can be used to analyze the relationships between expression, heritability, and aging. We used skin gene expression data from 647 twins from the MuTHER Consortium and applied factor analysis to concisely summarize patterns of gene expression to remove broad confounding influences and to produce concise pathway-level phenotypes.

Mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy in diabetes and normal adults: role of acquired and inherited mutational patterns in twins.

Heteroplasmy, the mixture of mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA), varies among individuals and cells. Heteroplasmy levels alter the penetrance of pathological mtDNA mutations, and the susceptibility to age-related diseases such as Parkinson's disease. Although mitochondrial dysfunction occurs in age-related type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), the involvement of heteroplasmy in diabetes is unclear.

IRF4 variants have age-specific effects on nevus count and predispose to melanoma.

High melanocytic nevus count is a strong predictor of melanoma risk. A GWAS of nevus count in Australian adolescent twins identified an association of nevus count with the interferon regulatory factor 4 gene (IRF4 [p = 6 x 10(-9)]). There was a strong genotype-by-age interaction, which was replicated in independent UK samples of adolescents and adults.