Variance component model to account for sample structure in genome-wide association studies.

ABSTRACT: Although genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified numerous loci associated with complex traits, imprecise modeling of the genetic relatedness within study samples may cause substantial inflation of test statistics and possibly spurious associations. Variance component approaches, such as efficient mixed-model association (EMMA), can correct for a wide range of sample structures by explicitly accounting for pairwise relatedness between individuals, using high-density markers to model the phenotype distribution; but such approaches are computationally impractical. We report here a variance component approach implemented in publicly available software, EMMA eXpedited (EMMAX), that reduces the computational time for analyzing large GWAS data sets from years to hours. We apply th

SUBMITTER: Kang HM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3092069 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature