About the Authors

Yao-Zhong Liu

Affiliation School of Medicine, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America

Scott G. Wilson

Affiliations School of Medicine and Pharmacology, The University of Western Australia and Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Sir Charles Gairder Hospital, Nedlands, Western Australia, Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, St Thomas' Hospital, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

Liang Wang

Affiliations School of Medicine, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America, The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education and Institute of Molecular Genetics, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, People's Republic of China

Xiao-Gang Liu

Affiliations School of Medicine, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America, The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education and Institute of Molecular Genetics, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, People's Republic of China

Yan-Fang Guo

Affiliations School of Medicine, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America, The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education and Institute of Molecular Genetics, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, People's Republic of China

Jian Li

Affiliation School of Medicine, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America

Han Yan

Affiliations School of Medicine, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America, The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education and Institute of Molecular Genetics, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, People's Republic of China

Panos Deloukas

Affiliation Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, St Thomas' Hospital, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

Nicole Soranzo

Affiliations Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, St Thomas' Hospital, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, United Kingdom

Usha Chinnapen-Horsley

Affiliation Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, United Kingdom

Alesandra Cervino

Affiliation Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, United Kingdom

Frances M. Williams

Affiliation Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, United Kingdom

Dong-Hai Xiong

Affiliation Osteoporosis Research Center, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, United States of America

Yin-Ping Zhang

Affiliations School of Medicine, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America, The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education and Institute of Molecular Genetics, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, People's Republic of China

Tian-Bo Jin

Affiliations School of Medicine, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America, The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education and Institute of Molecular Genetics, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, People's Republic of China

Shawn Levy

Affiliation Vanderbilt Microarray Shared Resource, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Christopher J. Papasian

Affiliation School of Medicine, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America

Betty M. Drees

Affiliation School of Medicine, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America

James J. Hamilton

Affiliation School of Medicine, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America

Robert R. Recker

Affiliation Osteoporosis Research Center, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, United States of America

Tim D. Spector

Affiliation Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, St Thomas' Hospital, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

Hong-Wen Deng

dengh@umkc.edu

Affiliations School of Medicine, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America, The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education and Institute of Molecular Genetics, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, People's Republic of China, Osteoporosis Research Center, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, United States of America, Laboratory of Molecular and Statistical Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, People's Republic of China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: HWD. Performed the experiments: LW HY PD NS UCH AC FMW DX YZ TJ SEL. Analyzed the data: XL YG JL YP. Wrote the paper: YZL. Provided data for in-silico replication of GWAS: SGW. Contributed data for in silico replication: TDS. Helped revise the paper: TDS RR JPH BMD CP SGW.