Airway Epithelial Expression Quantitative Trait Loci Reveal Genes Underlying Asthma and Other Airway Diseases.

ABSTRACT: Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified loci that are robustly associated with asthma and related phenotypes; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying these associations need to be explored. The most relevant tissues to study the functional consequences of asthma are the airways. We used publically available data to derive expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) for human epithelial cells from small and large airways and applied the eQTLs in the interpretation of GWAS results of asthma and related phenotypes. For the small airways (n = 105), we discovered 660 eQTLs at a 10% false discovery rate (FDR), among which 315 eQTLs were not previously reported in a large-scale eQTL study of whole lung tissue. A large fraction of the identified eQTLs is supported by data from

SUBMITTER: Luo W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4821039 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature