Title
'Location, Location, Location': a spatial approach for rare variant analysis and an application to a study on non-syndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate.
Abstract
Motivation: For the analysis of rare variants in sequence data, numerous approaches have been suggested. Fixed and flexible threshold approaches collapse the rare variant information of a genomic region into a test statistic with reduced dimensionality. Alternatively, the rare variant information can be combined in statistical frameworks that are based on suitable regression models, machine learning, etc. Although the existing approaches provide powerful tests that can incorporate information on allele frequencies and prior biological knowledge, differences in the spatial clustering of rare variants between cases and controls cannot be incorporated. Based on the assumption that deleterious variants and protective variants cluster or occur in different parts of the genomic region of interest, we propose a testing strategy for rare variants that builds on spatial cluster methodology and that guides the identification of the biological relevant segments of the region. Our approach does not require any assumption about the directions of the genetic effects. Results: In simulation studies, we assess the power of the clustering approach and compare it with existing methodology. Our simulation results suggest that the clustering approach for rare variants is well powered, even in situations that are ideal for standard methods. The efficiency of our spatial clustering approach is not affected by the presence of rare variants that have opposite effect size directions. An application to a sequencing study for non-syndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (NSCL/P) demonstrates its practical relevance. The proposed testing strategy is applied to a genomic region on chromosome 15q13.3 that was implicated in NSCL/P etiology in a previous genome-wide association study, and its results are compared with standard approaches.
Year
DOI
Venue
2012
10.1093/bioinformatics/bts568
BIOINFORMATICS
Keywords
Field
DocType
genome wide association study,alleles,gene frequency,computer simulation,genotype,cluster analysis
Data mining,Test statistic,Computer science,Regression analysis,Source code,Genome-wide association study,Curse of dimensionality,Bioinformatics,Region of interest,Cluster analysis,Test strategy
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
28
23
1367-4803
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
0
Authors
10