About the Authors

Ginevra Biino

biino@igm.cnr.it

Affiliations Institute of Population Genetics, National Research Council of Italy, Sassari, Italy, Institute of Molecular Genetics, National Research Council of Italy, Pavia, Italy

Gianfranco Parati

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, S.Luca Hospital, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan; Chair of Cardiology & Department of Clinical Medicine and Prevention, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

Maria Pina Concas

Affiliation Institute of Molecular Genetics, National Research Council of Italy, Pavia, Italy

Mauro Adamo

Affiliation Shardna Life Sciences, Pula, Italy

Andrea Angius

Affiliations Institute of Population Genetics, National Research Council of Italy, Sassari, Italy, Institute of Genetic and Biomedical Research, National Research Council of Italy, Monserrato, Italy

Simona Vaccargiu

Affiliation Institute of Population Genetics, National Research Council of Italy, Sassari, Italy

Mario Pirastu

Affiliations Institute of Population Genetics, National Research Council of Italy, Sassari, Italy, Shardna Life Sciences, Pula, Italy

Competing Interests

Author Mario Pirastu, had an assignment in the commercial company Shardna Life Sciences, but this does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Acquisition of data: MA AA SV. Interpretation of data: MA AA SV. Conceived and designed the experiments: GB MP GP. Analyzed the data: GB MPC. Wrote the paper: GB MP GP.