Estimating SNP-Based Heritability and Genetic Correlation in Case-Control Studies Directly and with Summary Statistics.

ABSTRACT: Methods that estimate SNP-based heritability and genetic correlations from genome-wide association studies have proven to be powerful tools for investigating the genetic architecture of common diseases and exposing unexpected relationships between disorders. Many relevant studies employ a case-control design, yet most methods are primarily geared toward analyzing quantitative traits. Here we investigate the validity of three common methods for estimating SNP-based heritability and genetic correlation between diseases. We find that the phenotype-correlation-genotype-correlation (PCGC) approach is the only method that can estimate both quantities accurately in the presence of important non-genetic risk factors, such as age and sex. We extend PCGC to work with arbitrary genetic architectures

SUBMITTER: Weissbrod O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6035374 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature