Large‐scale whole‐exome sequencing association study identifies FOXH1 gene and sphingolipid metabolism pathway influencing major depressive disorder

In the present study, we performed an exome‐wide investigation of the burden of rare disease‐causing variants for major depressive disorder (MDD) using 16,702 samples from UK biobank. Gene‐based association analysis and candidate gene prioritization analysis indicated that FOXH1 have significant association with MDD. In addition, sphingolipid metabolism pathway was found to be less enriched with rare disease‐causing variants in the MDD group, suggesting that this gene set may be involved in the pathophysiology of MDD.[Image: see text]