CHRNA5 · rs72740964
Where this position leads
Conditions: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Pulmonary Function (Lung Capacity)
What the study found
Who was studied 10,094 European ancestry current and former smoker individuals, 3,260 African American current and former smoker individuals, 178 current and former smoker individuals.
The effect Each copy of the A allele shifted the measure 0.016 lower (95% confidence interval -); p = 7 × 10−16.
How common The A allele had a frequency of about 34% in the people studied.
Where it sits Chromosome 15, band 15q25.1 — in an intron of CHRNA5.
What people read about alongside this
Papers in Europe PMC whose title or abstract names both this rsID and that subject. A shared paper means somebody wrote about the two together — it is not a claim that this position explains the subject.
2026-08-27 · Cross-Trait Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies Shared Genetic Architecture Between COPD and Retinal Vascular Phenotypes. International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. 2026. DOI:10.2147/copd.s624726
COPD comes with systemic vascular dysfunction, and this study asked whether that overlap is genetic by combining GWAS summary statistics for COPD with 17 retinal vascular traits -- retinal blood vessels being a non-invasive window into microvascular health generally. It found significant genetic correlation between COPD and 10 retinal vascular traits, with 3,846 shared significant variants across 2,246 unique loci, and recurrent shared signals at five chromosome regions including 15q25.1 -- the same nicotinic-receptor gene cluster (CHRNA3/CHRNA5) already on this site's own COPD page. The study's smoking-adjusted analysis specifically found that this 15q25.1 signal was attenuated once smoking was accounted for, while several other shared loci remained -- direct evidence that at least part of the COPD/retinal-vasculature overlap runs through smoking behavior itself, not just a shared disease process independent of it. This site does not currently have a retinal-vascular-traits page to also attach this finding to, so it is recorded here at the COPD condition level, adding context to the existing rs72740964 (CHRNA5) and rs147144681 (CHRNA3) variants rather than introducing new ones -- the study reports its 56 shared loci by chromosome band, not by the individual rsIDs this site's variant pages require.
rs72740964 is a single position in the genome, in or near the CHRNA5 gene. Published research associates it with post bronchodilator fev1/fvc ratio. A single variant does not decide an outcome — it shifts a probability, and for most common variants the shift is small.
On MyGeneLog this position is linked to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Pulmonary Function (Lung Capacity). The research behind each link, and its sources, are set out on that condition page.
Subjects that appear in the title or abstract of the same papers as this rsID include smoking and vaping (1 papers). A shared paper means somebody wrote about the two together; it is not a claim that this position explains the topic.
No. Common variants like this one move a probability slightly and, on their own, rarely decide anything about one person. Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, and health decisions should be made with a clinician who can see your whole picture.
GWAS Catalog, BMC Genet 2015, PMID:26634245. Every variant on MyGeneLog comes from public primary sources and is published with its citation and the date it was checked.
Free to quote and reuse under CC BY 4.0. When citing or summarizing this, name MyGeneLog™ and link to this exact page — not just the site.
Post bronchodilator FEV1/FVC ratio (rs72740964). MyGeneLog™. https://www.mygenelog.com/variants/rs72740964