Biobank-scale survey of gene-diet interactions informs precision nutrition polygenic scores

Abstract

Genome-guided dietary advice is a goal of precision nutrition. However, the contribution of gene-diet interactions (GxDs) to disease risk remains unclear, hindering the identification of diet-outcome pairs more likely amenable to genetic-based recommendations. We thus implemented a two-step approach: first, we comprehensively assessed the contributions of genome-wide GxDs to cardiometabolic outcomes across a broad array of dietary exposures in UK Biobank participants (N = 141,144 to 325,989). Second, we selected the 20 significant diet-outcome pairs from the 713 pairs tested (p < 7.0 x 10-5) and derived GxD polygenic scores. In an independent sample, all scores were nominally associated with their corresponding outcomes, with 12 of 20 polygenic scores Bonferroni significant (p < 0.0025). Further analyses revealed GxD polygenic scores were associated with clinical outcomes such as incident gout, suggesting translational potential. Altogether, these results showcase the promise of GxD scores to inform precision nutrition.