Testing gene-environment interactions in family-based association studies using trait-based ascertained samples.

ABSTRACT: The study of gene-environment interactions is an increasingly important aspect of genetic epidemiological investigation. Historically, it has been difficult to study gene-environment interactions using a family-based design for quantitative traits or when parent-offspring trios were incomplete. The QBAT-I provides researchers a tool to estimate and test for a gene-environment interaction in families of arbitrary structure that are sampled without regard to the phenotype of interest, but is vulnerable to inflated type I error if families are ascertained on the basis of the phenotype. In this study, we verified the potential for type I error of the QBAT-I when applied to samples ascertained on a trait of interest. The magnitude of the inflation increases as the main genetic effect increases

SUBMITTER: Zhang W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4041108 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature