Reference Trait Analysis Reveals Correlations Between Gene Expression and Quantitative Traits in Disjoint Samples.

ABSTRACT: Systems genetic analysis of complex traits involves the integrated analysis of genetic, genomic, and disease-related measures. However, these data are often collected separately across multiple study populations, rendering direct correlation of molecular features to complex traits impossible. Recent transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) have harnessed gene expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) to associate unmeasured gene expression with a complex trait in genotyped individuals, but this approach relies primarily on strong eQTL. We propose a simple and powerful alternative strategy for correlating independently obtained sets of complex traits and molecular features. In contrast to TWAS, our approach gains precision by correlating complex traits through a common set of continuou

SUBMITTER: Skelly DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6614885 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature