Abstract

Garrod's concept of 'chemical individuality' has contributed to comprehension of the molecular origins of human diseases. Untargeted high-throughput metabolomic technologies provide an in-depth snapshot of human metabolism at scale. We studied the genetic architecture of the human plasma metabolome using 913 metabolites assayed in 19,994 individuals and identified 2,599 variant-metabolite associations (P < 1.25 × 10-11) within 330 genomic regions, with rare variants (minor allele frequency ≤ 1%) explaining 9.4% of associations. Jointly modeling metabolites in each region, we identified 423 regional, co-regulated, variant-metabolite clusters called genetically influenced metabotypes. We assigned causal genes for 62.4% of these genetically influenced metabotypes, providing new insights into fundamental metabolite physiology and clinical relevance, including metabolite-guided discovery of potential adverse drug effects (DPYD and SRD5A2). We show strong enrichment of inborn errors of metabolism-causing genes, with examples of metabolite associations and clinical phenotypes of non-pathogenic variant carriers matching characteristics of the inborn errors of metabolism. Systematic, phenotypic follow-up of metabolite-specific genetic scores revealed multiple potential etiological relationships.