Gene-based analysis of regulatory variants identifies 4 putative novel asthma risk genes related to nucleotide synthesis and signaling.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Hundreds of genetic variants are thought to contribute to variation in asthma risk by modulating gene expression. Methods that increase the power of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) to identify risk-associated variants are needed.

Objective

We sought to develop a method that aggregates the evidence for association with disease risk across expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) of a gene and use this approach to identify asthma risk genes.

Methods

We developed a gene-based test and software package called EUGENE that (1) is applicable to GWAS summary statistics; (2) considers both cis- and trans-eQTLs; (3) incorporates eQTLs identified in different tissues; and (4) uses simulations to account for multiple testing. We applied this approach to 2 pub

SUBMITTER: Ferreira MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5471111 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature