Dataset Information

Disentangling the Effects of Colocalizing Genomic Annotations to Functionally Prioritize Non-coding Variants within Complex-Trait Loci.

ABSTRACT: Identifying genomic annotations that differentiate causal from trait-associated variants is essential to fine mapping disease loci. Although many studies have identified non-coding functional annotations that overlap disease-associated variants, these annotations often colocalize, complicating the ability to use these annotations for fine mapping causal variation. We developed a statistical approach (Genomic Annotation Shifter [GoShifter]) to assess whether enriched annotations are able to prioritize causal variation. GoShifter defines the null distribution of an annotation overlapping an allele by locally shifting annotations; this approach is less sensitive to biases arising from local genomic structure than commonly used enrichment methods that depend on SNP matching. Local shifting also allows GoShifter to identify independent causal effects from colocalizing annotations. Using GoShifter, we confirmed that variants in expression quantitative trail loci drive gene-expression changes though DNase-I hypersensitive sites (DHSs) near transcription start sites and independently through 3' UTR regulation. We also showed that (1) 15%-36% of trait-associated loci map to DHSs independently of other annotations; (2) loci associated with breast cancer and rheumatoid arthritis harbor potentially causal variants near the summits of histone marks rather than full peak bodies; (3) variants associated with height are highly enriched in embryonic stem cell DHSs; and (4) we can effectively prioritize causal variation at specific loci.

SUBMITTER: Trynka G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4572568 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Disentangling the Effects of Colocalizing Genomic Annotations to Functionally Prioritize Non-coding Variants within Complex-Trait Loci.

Trynka Gosia G Westra Harm-Jan HJ Slowikowski Kamil K Hu Xinli X Xu Han H Stranger Barbara E BE Klein Robert J RJ Han Buhm B Raychaudhuri Soumya S

American journal of human genetics 20150701 1

Identifying genomic annotations that differentiate causal from trait-associated variants is essential to fine mapping disease loci. Although many studies have identified non-coding functional annotations that overlap disease-associated variants, these annotations often colocalize, complicating the ability to use these annotations for fine mapping causal variation. We developed a statistical approach (Genomic Annotation Shifter [GoShifter]) to assess whether enriched annotations are able to prior ...[more]

PMID: 26140449

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Project description:Genetic dissection of the S rat genome has provided strong evidence for the presence of two interacting blood pressure (BP) quantitative trait loci (QTLs), termed QTL1 and QTL2, on rat chromosome 5. However, the identities of the underlying interacting genetic factors remain unknown. Further experiments targeted to identify the interacting genetic factors by the substitution mapping approach alone are difficult because of the interdependency of natural recombinations to occur at the two QTLs. We hypothesized that the interacting genetic factors underlying these two QTLs may interact at the level of gene transcription and thereby represent expression QTLs (eQTLs). To detect these interacting eQTLs, a custom QTL chip containing the annotated genes within QTL1 and QTL2 was developed and used to conduct a transcriptional profiling study of S and two congenic strains that retain either one or both the QTLs. The results uncovered an interaction between two transcription factors, DMRTA2 and NFIA. Further, the âbiological signatureâ elicited by these two transcription factors was differential between the congenic strain that retained LEW alleles at both QTL1 and 2 compared to the congenic strain that retained LEW alleles at QTL1 alone. A network of transcription factors potentially affecting BP could be traced, lending support to our hypothesis. Pairs of Cy5 and Cy3 labeled targets were co-hybridized onto either a custom long oligonucleotide microarray for the interrogation of 231 genes encompassed by QTL1 and QTL2, or a TIGR rat cDNA array consisting of 26,401 probe elements representing 20,465 unique non-QTL genes. A âflip-dyeâ or âbalanced blockâ design was used as the experimental method of choice to account for potential dye-bias labeling effects. Six âbalanced blockâ normalized files are submitted for the long oligonucleotide array interrogating the hearts from S versus S.LEW(5)x6x9 animals, fourteen âflip-dyeâ hybridizations are submitted for the cDNA array interrogating the hearts from S versus S.LEW(5)x6x9 animals, and twelve âflip-dyeâ hybridizations are submitted for the cDNA array interrogating the hearts from S versus S.LEW(5)x6x11 animals. GPR and MEV files cannot be located.

Project description:BackgroundGenome-wide association studies have identified thousands of SNP variants associated with hundreds of phenotypes. For most associations the causal variants and the molecular mechanisms underlying pathogenesis remain unknown. Exploration of the underlying functional annotations of trait-associated loci has thrown some light on their potential roles in pathogenesis. However, there are some shortcomings of the methods used to date, which may undermine efforts to prioritize variants for further analyses. Here, we introduce and apply novel methods to rigorously identify annotation classes showing enrichment or depletion of trait-associated variants taking into account the underlying associations due to co-location of different functional annotations and linkage disequilibrium.ResultsWe assessed enrichment and depletion of variants in publicly available annotation classes such as genic regions, regulatory features, measures of conservation, and patterns of histone modifications. We used logistic regression to build a multivariate model that identified the most influential functional annotations for trait-association status of genome-wide significant variants. SNPs associated with all of the enriched annotations were 8 times more likely to be trait-associated variants than SNPs annotated with none of them. Annotations associated with chromatin state together with prior knowledge of the existence of a local expression QTL (eQTL) were the most important factors in the final logistic regression model. Surprisingly, despite the widespread use of evolutionary conservation to prioritize variants for study we find only modest enrichment of trait-associated SNPs in conserved regions.ConclusionWe established odds ratios of functional annotations that are more likely to contain significantly trait-associated SNPs, for the purpose of prioritizing GWAS hits for further studies. Additionally, we estimated the relative and combined influence of the different genomic annotations, which may facilitate future prioritization methods by adding substantial information.

Dataset Information

Disentangling the Effects of Colocalizing Genomic Annotations to Functionally Prioritize Non-coding Variants within Complex-Trait Loci.

Publications

Disentangling the Effects of Colocalizing Genomic Annotations to Functionally Prioritize Non-coding Variants within Complex-Trait Loci.

Similar Datasets

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