Revisiting a GWAS peak in Arabidopsis thaliana reveals possible confounding by genetic heterogeneity.

ABSTRACT: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have become a standard approach for exploring the genetic basis of phenotypic variation. However, correlation is not causation, and only a tiny fraction of all associations have been experimentally confirmed. One practical problem is that a peak of association does not always pinpoint a causal gene, but may instead be tagging multiple causal variants. In this study, we reanalyze a previously reported peak associated with flowering time traits in Swedish Arabidopsis thaliana population. The peak appeared to pinpoint the AOP2/AOP3 cluster of glucosinolate biosynthesis genes, which is known to be responsible for natural variation in herbivore resistance. Here we propose an alternative hypothesis, by demonstrating that the AOP2/AOP3 flowering association

SUBMITTER: Sasaki E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8405673 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature