Identification of trans-eQTLs using mediation analysis with multiple mediators.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Mapping expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) has provided insight into gene regulation. Compared to cis-eQTLs, the regulatory mechanisms of trans-eQTLs are less known. Previous studies suggest that trans-eQTLs may regulate expression of remote genes by altering the expression of nearby genes. Trans-association has been studied in the mediation analysis with a single mediator. However, prior applications with one mediator are prone to model misspecification due to correlations between genes. Motivated from the observation that trans-eQTLs are more likely to associate with more than one cis-gene than randomly selected SNPs in the GTEx dataset, we developed a computational method to identify trans-eQTLs that are mediated by multiple mediators.

Results

We propos

SUBMITTER: Shan N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6440281 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature