Rare Exome Sequence Variants in CLCN6 Reduce Blood Pressure Levels and Hypertension Risk.

BACKGROUND: Rare genetic variants influence blood pressure (BP).

METHODS AND RESULTS: Whole-exome sequencing was performed on DNA samples from 17 956 individuals of European ancestry and African ancestry (14 497, first-stage discovery and 3459, second-stage discovery) to examine the effect of rare variants on hypertension and 4 BP traits: systolic BP, diastolic BP, pulse pressure, and mean arterial pressure. Tests of ≈170 000 common variants (minor allele frequency, ≥1%; statistical significance, P≤2.9×10(-7)) and gene-based tests of rare variants (minor allele frequency,

CONCLUSIONS: These findings implicate the effect of rare coding variants in CLCN6 in BP variation and offer new insights into BP regulation.