scholarly journals FarmCPUpp: Efficient Large-Scale GWAS

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Kusmec ◽  
Patrick S. Schnable

AbstractGenome-wide association studies (GWAS) are computationally demanding analyses that use large sample sizes and dense marker sets to discover associations between quantitative trait variation and genetic variants. FarmCPU is a powerful new method for performing GWAS. However, its performance is hampered by details of its implementation and its reliance on the R programming language. In this paper we present an efficient implementation of FarmCPU, called FarmCPUpp, that retains the R user interface but improves memory management and speed through the use of C++ code and parallel computing.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlie Hatcher ◽  
Caroline L. Relton ◽  
Tom R. Gaunt ◽  
Tom G. Richardson

AbstractIntegrative approaches which harness large-scale molecular datasets can help develop mechanistic insight into findings from genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We have performed extensive analyses to uncover transcriptional and epigenetic processes which may play a role in neurological trait variation.This was undertaken by applying Bayesian multiple-trait colocalization systematically across the genome to identify genetic variants responsible for influencing intermediate molecular phenotypes as well as neurological traits. In this analysis we leveraged high dimensional quantitative trait loci data derived from prefrontal cortex tissue (concerning gene expression, DNA methylation and histone acetylation) and GWAS findings for 5 neurological traits (Neuroticism, Schizophrenia, Educational Attainment, Insomnia and Alzheimer’s disease).There was evidence of colocalization for 118 associations suggesting that the same underlying genetic variant influenced both nearby gene expression as well as neurological trait variation. Of these, 73 associations provided evidence that the genetic variant also influenced proximal DNA methylation and/or histone acetylation. These findings support previous evidence at loci where epigenetic mechanisms may putatively mediate effects of genetic variants on traits, such as KLC1 and schizophrenia. We also uncovered evidence implicating novel loci in neurological disease susceptibility, including genes expressed predominantly in brain tissue such as MDGA1, KIRREL3 and SLC12A5.An inverse relationship between DNA methylation and gene expression was observed more than can be accounted for by chance, supporting previous findings implicating DNA methylation as a transcriptional repressor. Our study should prove valuable in helping future studies prioritise candidate genes and epigenetic mechanisms for in-depth functional follow-up analyses.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Zhao ◽  
Hong Qu

Abstract Background: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play important roles in regulating gene expression through binding miRNAs and RNA binding proteins. Genetic variation of circRNAs may affect complex traits/diseases by changing their binding efficiency to target miRNAs and proteins. There is a growing demand for investigations of the functions of genetic changes using large-scale experimental evidence. However, there is no online genetic resource for circRNA genes. Results: We performed extensive genetic annotation of 295,526 circRNAs integrated from circBase, circNet and circRNAdb. All pre-computed genetic variants were presented at our online resource, circVAR, with data browsing and search functionality. We explored the chromosome-based distribution of circRNAs and their associated variants. We found that, based on mapping to the 1000 Genomes and ClinVAR databases, chromosome 17 has a relatively large number of circRNAs and associated common and health-related genetic variants. Following the annotation of genome wide association studies (GWAS)-based circRNA variants, we found many non-coding variants within circRNAs, suggesting novel mechanisms for common diseases reported from GWAS studies. For cancer-based somatic variants, we found that chromosome 7 has many highly complex mutations that have been overlooked in previous research. Conclusion: We used the circVAR database to collect SNPs and small insertions and deletions (INDELs) in putative circRNA regions and to identify their potential phenotypic information. To provide a reusable resource for the circRNA research community, we have published all the pre-computed genetic data concerning circRNAs and associated genes together with data query and browsing functions at http://soft.bioinfo-minzhao.org/circvar .


2020 ◽  
Vol 216 (5) ◽  
pp. 280-283
Author(s):  
Kazutaka Ohi ◽  
Takamitsu Shimada ◽  
Yuzuru Kataoka ◽  
Toshiki Yasuyama ◽  
Yasuhiro Kawasaki ◽  
...  

SummaryPsychiatric disorders as well as subcortical brain volumes are highly heritable. Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for these traits have been performed. We investigated the genetic correlations between five psychiatric disorders and the seven subcortical brain volumes and the intracranial volume from large-scale GWASs by linkage disequilibrium score regression. We revealed weak overlaps between the genetic variants associated with psychiatric disorders and subcortical brain and intracranial volumes, such as in schizophrenia and the hippocampus and bipolar disorder and the accumbens. We confirmed shared aetiology and polygenic architecture across the psychiatric disorders and the specific subcortical brain and intracranial volume.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Zhao ◽  
Hong Qu

Abstract Background: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play important roles in regulating gene expression through binding miRNAs and RNA binding proteins. Genetic variation of circRNAs may affect complex traits/diseases by changing their binding efficiency to target miRNAs and proteins. There is a growing demand for investigations of the functions of genetic changes using large-scale experimental evidence. However, there is no online genetic resource for circRNA genes. Results: We performed extensive genetic annotation of 295,526 circRNAs integrated from circBase, circNet and circRNAdb. All pre-computed genetic variants were presented at our online resource, circVAR, with data browsing and search functionality. We explored the chromosome-based distribution of circRNAs and their associated variants. We found that, based on mapping to the 1000 Genomes and ClinVAR databases, chromosome 17 has a relatively large number of circRNAs and associated common and health-related genetic variants. Following the annotation of genome wide association studies (GWAS)-based circRNA variants, we found many non-coding variants within circRNAs, suggesting novel mechanisms for common diseases reported from GWAS studies. For cancer-based somatic variants, we found that chromosome 7 has many highly complex mutations that have been overlooked in previous research.Conclusion: We used the circVAR database to collect SNPs and small insertions and deletions (INDELs) in putative circRNA regions and to identify their potential phenotypic information. To provide a reusable resource for the circRNA research community, we have published all the pre-computed genetic data concerning circRNAs and associated genes together with data query and browsing functions at http://soft.bioinfo-minzhao.org/circvar.


BMC Genomics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Zhao ◽  
Hong Qu

Abstract Background Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play important roles in regulating gene expression through binding miRNAs and RNA binding proteins. Genetic variation of circRNAs may affect complex traits/diseases by changing their binding efficiency to target miRNAs and proteins. There is a growing demand for investigations of the functions of genetic changes using large-scale experimental evidence. However, there is no online genetic resource for circRNA genes. Results We performed extensive genetic annotation of 295,526 circRNAs integrated from circBase, circNet and circRNAdb. All pre-computed genetic variants were presented at our online resource, circVAR, with data browsing and search functionality. We explored the chromosome-based distribution of circRNAs and their associated variants. We found that, based on mapping to the 1000 Genomes and ClinVAR databases, chromosome 17 has a relatively large number of circRNAs and associated common and health-related genetic variants. Following the annotation of genome wide association studies (GWAS)-based circRNA variants, we found many non-coding variants within circRNAs, suggesting novel mechanisms for common diseases reported from GWAS studies. For cancer-based somatic variants, we found that chromosome 7 has many highly complex mutations that have been overlooked in previous research. Conclusion We used the circVAR database to collect SNPs and small insertions and deletions (INDELs) in putative circRNA regions and to identify their potential phenotypic information. To provide a reusable resource for the circRNA research community, we have published all the pre-computed genetic data concerning circRNAs and associated genes together with data query and browsing functions at http://soft.bioinfo-minzhao.org/circvar.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (34) ◽  
pp. 6207-6221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Innocenzo Rainero ◽  
Alessandro Vacca ◽  
Flora Govone ◽  
Annalisa Gai ◽  
Lorenzo Pinessi ◽  
...  

Migraine is a common, chronic neurovascular disorder caused by a complex interaction between genetic and environmental risk factors. In the last two decades, molecular genetics of migraine have been intensively investigated. In a few cases, migraine is transmitted as a monogenic disorder, and the disease phenotype cosegregates with mutations in different genes like CACNA1A, ATP1A2, SCN1A, KCNK18, and NOTCH3. In the common forms of migraine, candidate genes as well as genome-wide association studies have shown that a large number of genetic variants may increase the risk of developing migraine. At present, few studies investigated the genotype-phenotype correlation in patients with migraine. The purpose of this review was to discuss recent studies investigating the relationship between different genetic variants and the clinical characteristics of migraine. Analysis of genotype-phenotype correlations in migraineurs is complicated by several confounding factors and, to date, only polymorphisms of the MTHFR gene have been shown to have an effect on migraine phenotype. Additional genomic studies and network analyses are needed to clarify the complex pathways underlying migraine and its clinical phenotypes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuquan Rao ◽  
Yao Yao ◽  
Daniel E. Bauer

AbstractGenome-wide association studies (GWAS) have uncovered thousands of genetic variants that influence risk for human diseases and traits. Yet understanding the mechanisms by which these genetic variants, mainly noncoding, have an impact on associated diseases and traits remains a significant hurdle. In this review, we discuss emerging experimental approaches that are being applied for functional studies of causal variants and translational advances from GWAS findings to disease prevention and treatment. We highlight the use of genome editing technologies in GWAS functional studies to modify genomic sequences, with proof-of-principle examples. We discuss the challenges in interrogating causal variants, points for consideration in experimental design and interpretation of GWAS locus mechanisms, and the potential for novel therapeutic opportunities. With the accumulation of knowledge of functional genetics, therapeutic genome editing based on GWAS discoveries will become increasingly feasible.


Author(s):  
Jianhua Wang ◽  
Dandan Huang ◽  
Yao Zhou ◽  
Hongcheng Yao ◽  
Huanhuan Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have revolutionized the field of complex trait genetics over the past decade, yet for most of the significant genotype-phenotype associations the true causal variants remain unknown. Identifying and interpreting how causal genetic variants confer disease susceptibility is still a big challenge. Herein we introduce a new database, CAUSALdb, to integrate the most comprehensive GWAS summary statistics to date and identify credible sets of potential causal variants using uniformly processed fine-mapping. The database has six major features: it (i) curates 3052 high-quality, fine-mappable GWAS summary statistics across five human super-populations and 2629 unique traits; (ii) estimates causal probabilities of all genetic variants in GWAS significant loci using three state-of-the-art fine-mapping tools; (iii) maps the reported traits to a powerful ontology MeSH, making it simple for users to browse studies on the trait tree; (iv) incorporates highly interactive Manhattan and LocusZoom-like plots to allow visualization of credible sets in a single web page more efficiently; (v) enables online comparison of causal relations on variant-, gene- and trait-levels among studies with different sample sizes or populations and (vi) offers comprehensive variant annotations by integrating massive base-wise and allele-specific functional annotations. CAUSALdb is freely available at http://mulinlab.org/causaldb.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (14) ◽  
pp. 2512-2514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bongsong Kim ◽  
Xinbin Dai ◽  
Wenchao Zhang ◽  
Zhaohong Zhuang ◽  
Darlene L Sanchez ◽  
...  

Abstract Summary We present GWASpro, a high-performance web server for the analyses of large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS). GWASpro was developed to provide data analyses for large-scale molecular genetic data, coupled with complex replicated experimental designs such as found in plant science investigations and to overcome the steep learning curves of existing GWAS software tools. GWASpro supports building complex design matrices, by which complex experimental designs that may include replications, treatments, locations and times, can be accounted for in the linear mixed model. GWASpro is optimized to handle GWAS data that may consist of up to 10 million markers and 10 000 samples from replicable lines or hybrids. GWASpro provides an interface that significantly reduces the learning curve for new GWAS investigators. Availability and implementation GWASpro is freely available at https://bioinfo.noble.org/GWASPRO. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


2012 ◽  
Vol 215 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Homuth ◽  
Alexander Teumer ◽  
Uwe Völker ◽  
Matthias Nauck

The metabolome, defined as the reflection of metabolic dynamics derived from parameters measured primarily in easily accessible body fluids such as serum, plasma, and urine, can be considered as the omics data pool that is closest to the phenotype because it integrates genetic influences as well as nongenetic factors. Metabolic traits can be related to genetic polymorphisms in genome-wide association studies, enabling the identification of underlying genetic factors, as well as to specific phenotypes, resulting in the identification of metabolome signatures primarily caused by nongenetic factors. Similarly, correlation of metabolome data with transcriptional or/and proteome profiles of blood cells also produces valuable data, by revealing associations between metabolic changes and mRNA and protein levels. In the last years, the progress in correlating genetic variation and metabolome profiles was most impressive. This review will therefore try to summarize the most important of these studies and give an outlook on future developments.


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