Variants in melanocortin 1 receptor gene contribute to risk of melanoma--a direct sequencing analysis in a Texas population.

In this study, we directly sequenced the ( gene in 2,212 individuals to detect all variants and assessed their associations with cutaneous melanoma (CM) risk in a hospital-based study of 1,106 CM patients and 1,106 control subjects. Of 61 variants identified, 16 rare variants have not been previously reported by others; three variants were associated with a significant CM risk [c.451C>T (OR = 1.78, 95% CI = 1.44–2.20), c.478C>T (OR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.05–1.63), and c.880G>C (OR = 1.69, 95% CI = 1.15–2.48)]; and two with borderline CM risk [c.942A>G (OR =1.23, 95% CI =1.00–1.51, and c.274G>A (OR = 1.23,95% CI = 0.99–1.53)] under a dominant model. When combined these five variants for cumulative effect analysis, we found that subjects with an increased number of variant genotypes from any of these five variants had significantly increased risk of CM with ORs of 1.68 (95% CI = 1.39–2.04), 1.61 (95% CI = 1.27–2.04), and 2.64 (95% CI = 1.72–4.05) for one, two, and three or more variant genotypes, respectively (trend test: <0.001). Further haplotype and diplotype analyses based on the above-mentioned five SNPs suggested that the c.451T allele contributed to the high risk of CM and that the five variants may have joint effects on the risk of CM. Additional analysis suggests that the three most significant SNPs may be the molecular mechanisms underlying the known risk factors of the colors of the eyes, skin and hair in this study population. In conclusion, our study provided confirmatory evidence that both common and rare variants in the coding region may be biomarkers for susceptibility to CM in US populations.