Figure 2. Schematic representation of ANGPTL3 with positions of NS sequence variations identified in the upper and lower quartiles of TG distribution in the DHS.

(A) The deduced 460–amino acid ANGPTL3 protein has the characteristic features of angiopoietins: a signal peptide (SP), an extended helical domain predicted to form coiled coils (CC), and a globular fibrinogen homology domain (FBG-like domain) at the C terminus. An excess of NS sequence variations was found in lower quartile of TG distribution compared with the upper quartile (14 vs. 5 variations; P = 0.064). Coiled coil domains were predicted using COILS (http://www.ch.embnet.org/software/COILS_form.html), and the fibrinogen-like domain sequence was obtained from NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=Protein&itool=toolbar). Δ, deletion of an amino acid. (B) A common allele of ANGPTL3 (M259T) present in 10% of African Americans was associated with lower plasma levels of TG in 2 the DHS and the ARIC study. The variant was not associated with HDL-C or BMI. M/M, M/T, and T/T refer to predicted amino acids at position 259 of ANGPTL3.