Dissecting maternal and fetal genetic effects underlying the associations between maternal phenotypes, birth outcomes, and adult phenotypes

Based on 10,734 mother?infant duos of European ancestry from the UK, Northern Europe, Australia, and North America, the study constructed haplotype genetic scores using SNPs known to be associated with adult height, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and type 2 diabetes (T2D). And tested associations between these haplotype genetic scores and birth outcomes (gestational duration, birth weight). In addition, constructed the infant-specific birth weight genetic scores to examine the effects of fetal growth on gestational duration and maternal phenotypes during pregnancy. The conclusions of the study are that both maternal height and fetal growth are important factors in shaping the duration of gestation: genetically elevated maternal height is associated with longer gestational duration, whereas alleles that increase fetal growth are associated with shorter gestational duration. Fetal growth is influenced by both maternal and fetal effects and can reciprocally influence maternal phenotypes