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A gene-based association method for mapping traits using reference transcriptome data

Abstract

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified thousands of variants robustly associated with complex traits. However, the biological mechanisms underlying these associations are, in general, not well understood. We propose a gene-based association method called PrediXcan that directly tests the molecular mechanisms through which genetic variation affects phenotype. The approach estimates the component of gene expression determined by an individual's genetic profile and correlates 'imputed' gene expression with the phenotype under investigation to identify genes involved in the etiology of the phenotype. Genetically regulated gene expression is estimated using whole-genome tissue-dependent prediction models trained with reference transcriptome data sets. PrediXcan enjoys the benefits of gene-based approaches such as reduced multiple-testing burden and a principled approach to the design of follow-up experiments. Our results demonstrate that PrediXcan can detect known and new genes associated with disease traits and provide insights into the mechanism of these associations.

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Figure 1: Mechanism tested by the PrediXcan method.
Figure 2: PrediXcan framework.
Figure 3: Cross-validated prediction performance versus heritability.
Figure 4: Prediction performance of elastic net tested on a separate cohort.
Figure 5: Examples of well-predicted genes.
Figure 6: PrediXcan results for T1D.
Figure 7: Comparison of gene-based methods.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Konkashbaev and C. Fuchsberger for outstanding technical support and N. Knoblauch for assistance in performing the quality control pipeline. We acknowledge the following US National Institutes of Health grants: K12 CA139160 (H.K.I.), T32 MH020065 (K.P.S.), F32 CA165823 (H.E.W.), R01 MH101820 and R01 MH090937 (GTEx), P30 DK20595 and P60 DK20595 (Diabetes Research and Training Center), P50 DA037844 (Rat Genomics), UO1 GM61393 (Pharmacogenomics of Anticancer Agents Research), P50 MH094267 (Conte), U01 GM092691 (J.C.D.) and U19 HL065962 (PGRN Statistical Analysis Resource). Additional acknowledgments can be found in the Supplementary Note.

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H.K.I., H.E.W., E.R.G., K.P.S., S.V.M. and K.A.-M. performed the analyses. J.C.D., R.J.C. and A.E.E. provided replication data. E.R.G., H.E.W., K.P.S. and H.K.I. wrote the manuscript. D.L.N., N.J.C. and H.K.I. provided intellectual input and supervised the study. H.K.I. designed the study. All authors reviewed and contributed to the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hae Kyung Im.

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Supplementary Figure 1 Comparison of tenfold cross-validated predictive performance between all tested methods (LASSO, elastic net with α = 0.5, top SNP, polygenic score at several P-value thresholds) in the DGN whole-blood cohort.

Predictive performance was measured by the R2 value between predicted (GReX) and observed expression.

Supplementary Figure 2 Comparison of tenfold cross-validated predictive performance of elastic net in different starting SNP sets (4.6 million 1000 Genomes Project (TGP) SNPs, 1.9 million HapMap Phase 2 SNPs, 331,800 WTCCC genotyped SNPs) in the DGN whole-blood cohort.

Predictive performance was measured by the R2 value between predicted (GReX) and observed expression.

Supplementary Figure 3 Comparison of predicted levels of expression with observed levels from nine tissues of the GTEx pilot project.

The observed squared correlation between predicted and observed gene expression levels, R2, is plotted against the null distribution of R2.

Supplementary Figure 4 Comparison of prediction performance between local- and distal-based prediction models.

Using whole-blood prediction models trained in DGN, we compared predicted levels of expression with observed levels in GTEx whole blood. Local predictors were generated using elastic net on SNPs within 1 Mb of each gene, and distal predictors included any trans eQTLs outside this region with linear regression P < 1 × 10–5. The observed (y axis) squared correlation between predicted and observed gene expression levels, R2, is plotted against the null distribution of R2 (x axis).

Supplementary Figure 5 Quantile-quantile plot of the association P values from the PrediXcan analysis of 6 remaining WTCCC diseases using expression levels imputed from DGN whole blood.

The red line in each panel shows the null expected distribution of P values, and the blue line represents the Bonferroni-corrected genome-wide significance threshold. For each disease, the top three genes that exceed the Bonferroni significance threshold are labeled. The diseases shown are (a) rheumatoid arthritis, (b) Crohn's disease, (c) bipolar disorder, (d) coronary artery disease, (e) hypertension and (f) type 2 diabetes.

Supplementary Figure 6 Plot of the association P values based on genomic position from the PrediXcan analysis of six remaining WTCCC diseases using expression levels imputed from DGN whole blood.

The blue line in each panel represents the Bonferroni-corrected genome-wide significance threshold. For each disease, the top three genes that exceed the Bonferroni significance threshold are labeled. The diseases shown are (a) rheumatoid arthritis, (b) Crohn's disease, (c) bipolar disorder, (d) coronary artery disease, (e) hypertension and (f) type 2 diabetes.

Supplementary Figure 7 Enrichment of known disease genes.

Each plot shows the null expected distribution for the number of genes expected to fall below a P-value threshold of 0.01. The null distribution was derived via 10,000 random permutations. The large point on the horizontal axis of each plot shows the observed number of previously known disease genes that fall below the P-value threshold. The diseases shown are (a) rheumatoid arthritis, (b) Crohn's disease, (c) bipolar disorder, (d) coronary artery disease, (e) hypertension and (f) type 2 diabetes.

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Gamazon, E., Wheeler, H., Shah, K. et al. A gene-based association method for mapping traits using reference transcriptome data. Nat Genet 47, 1091–1098 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3367

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