Here we present an exome-wide association study of severe adolescent idiopathic scoliosis and identify an association with a missense SNP in the gene SLC39A8. We replicate this finding in a second independent cohort and show that in addition to scoliosis risk, the SNP is associated with several related traits in our AIS cohort including height, BMI, and curve severity. This evidence concerns the gene SLC39A8 and scoliosis.