Hiding in plain sight: uncovering the genetic basis of complex phenotypes through low-risk groups

Medical genetic studies focus on high-risk groups to enrich for targeted phenotypes. Although genetic effects may vary across the lifespan, age-related enrichment of target phenotypes can also arise from cumulative environmental exposures, without requiring changes in genetic architecture. Accumulating environmental effects over the lifetime can inflate nongenetic variance, creating the illusion of greater genetic signal while in fact masking underlying genetic effects. We propose investigating the genetic architecture of complex phenotypes in lower-risk, younger individuals, which may reduce residual variance and improve power to isolate the genetic underpinnings of complex disease-related traits. To illustrate this, we analyzed 9 complex traits across age-stratified White European cohorts in the UK Biobank. Genome-wide association analyses reveal a greater number of genome-wide significant SNPs in younger cohorts. Complementing these results, heritability analyses show a higher relative genetic contribution in younger cohorts. Together, these patterns demonstrate that genetic signals are more readily detected in lower-risk, younger individuals. This perspective suggests that temporal dynamics in genetic architecture should guide participant selection, challenging the traditional focus on high-risk older groups and highlighting the value of targeting higher-heritability groups for genetic discovery.