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Incorporating genotype uncertainties into the genotypic TDT for main effects and gene-environment interactions.

ABSTRACT: Genotype imputation has become a standard option for researchers to expand their genotype datasets to improve signal precision and power in tests of genetic association with disease. In imputations for family-based studies however, subjects are often treated as unrelated individuals: currently, only BEAGLE allows for simultaneous imputation for trios of parents and offspring; however, only the most likely genotype calls are returned, not estimated genotype probabilities. For population-based SNP association studies, it has been shown that incorporating genotype uncertainty can be more powerful than using hard genotype calls. We here investigate this issue in the context of case-parent family data. We present the statistical framework for the genotypic transmission-disequilibrium test (gTDT) using observed genotype calls and imputed genotype probabilities, derive an extension to assess gene-environment interactions for binary environmental variables, and illustrate the performance of our method on a set of trios from the International Cleft Consortium. In contrast to population-based studies, however, utilizing the genotype probabilities in this framework (derived by treating the family members as unrelated) can result in biases of the test statistics toward protectiveness for the minor allele, particularly for markers with lower minor allele frequencies and lower imputation quality. We further compare the results between ignoring relatedness in the imputation and taking family structure into account, based on hard genotype calls. We find that by far the least biased results are obtained when family structure is taken into account and currently recommend this approach in spite of its intense computational requirements.

SUBMITTER: Taub MA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3645945 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Incorporating genotype uncertainties into the genotypic TDT for main effects and gene-environment interactions.

Taub Margaret A MA Schwender Holger H Beaty Terri H TH Louis Thomas A TA Ruczinski Ingo I

Genetic epidemiology 20120401 3

Genotype imputation has become a standard option for researchers to expand their genotype datasets to improve signal precision and power in tests of genetic association with disease. In imputations for family-based studies however, subjects are often treated as unrelated individuals: currently, only BEAGLE allows for simultaneous imputation for trios of parents and offspring; however, only the most likely genotype calls are returned, not estimated genotype probabilities. For population-based SNP ...[more]

PMID: 22678881

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Project description:Unraveling the molecular processes that lead from genotype to phenotype is crucial for the understanding and effective treatment of genetic diseases. Knowledge of the causative genetic defect most often does not enable treatment; therefore, causal intermediates between genotype and phenotype constitute valuable candidates for molecular intervention points that can be therapeutically targeted. Mapping genetic determinants of gene expression levels (also known as expression quantitative trait loci or eQTL studies) is frequently used for this purpose, yet distinguishing causation from correlation remains a significant challenge. Here, we address this challenge using extensive, multi-environment gene expression and fitness profiling of hundreds of genetically diverse yeast strains, in order to identify truly causal intermediate genes that condition fitness in a given environment. Using functional genomics assays, we show that the predictive power of eQTL studies for inferring causal intermediate genes is poor unless performed across multiple environments. Surprisingly, although the effects of genotype on fitness depended strongly on environment, causal intermediates could be most reliably predicted from genetic effects on expression present in all environments. Our results indicate a mechanism explaining this apparent paradox, whereby immediate molecular consequences of genetic variation are shared across environments, and environment-dependent phenotypic effects result from downstream integration of environmental signals. We developed a statistical model to predict causal intermediates that leverages this insight, yielding over 400 transcripts, for the majority of which we experimentally validated their role in conditioning fitness. Our findings have implications for the design and analysis of clinical omics studies aimed at discovering personalized targets for molecular intervention, suggesting that inferring causation in a single cellular context can benefit from molecular profiling in multiple contexts.

Dataset Information

Incorporating genotype uncertainties into the genotypic TDT for main effects and gene-environment interactions.

Publications

Incorporating genotype uncertainties into the genotypic TDT for main effects and gene-environment interactions.

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