Meta-analysis of gene-level associations for rare variants based on single-variant statistics

Yi Juan Hu, Sonja I. Berndt, Stefan Gustafsson, Andrea Ganna, Erik Ingelsson, Joel Hirschhorn, Kari E. North, Dan Yu Lin, Sonja I. Berndt, Stefan Gustafsson, Reedik Mägi, Andrea Ganna, Eleanor Wheeler, Mary F. Feitosa, Anne E. Justice, Keri L. Monda, Damien C. Croteau-Chonka, Felix R. Day, To˜nu Esko, Tove FallTeresa Ferreira, Davide Gentilini, Anne U. Jackson, Jian’an Luan, Joshua C. Randall, Sailaja Vedantam, Cristen J. Willer, Thomas W. Winkler, Andrew R. Wood, Tsegaselassie Workalemahu, Yi Juan Hu, Sang Hong Lee, Liming Liang, Dan Yu Lin, Josine L. Min, Benjamin M. Neale, Gudmar Thorleifsson, Jian Yang, Eva Albrecht, Najaf Amin, Jennifer L. Bragg-Gresham, Gemma Cadby, Martin den Heijer, Niina Eklund, Krista Fischer, Anuj Goel, Jouke Jan Hottenga, Jennifer E. Huffman, Ivonne Jarick, Asa Johansson, Toby Johnson, Stavroula Kanoni, Marcus E. Kleber, Inke R. König, Kati Kristiansson, Zoltán Kutalik, Claudia Lamina, Cecile Lecoeur, Guo Li, Massimo Mangino, Wendy L. McArdle, Carolina Medina-Gomez, Martina Müller-Nurasyid, Julius S. Ngwa, Ilja M. Nolte, Lavinia Paternoster, Sonali Pechlivanis, Markus Perola, Marjolein J. Peters, Michael Preuss, Lynda M. Rose, Jianxin Shi, Dmitry Shungin, Albert Vernon Smith, Rona J. Strawbridge, Ida Surakka, Alexander Teumer, Mieke D. Trip, Jonathan Tyrer, Jana V.Van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Liesbeth Vandenput, Lindsay L. Waite, Jing Hua Zhao, Devin Absher, Folkert W. Asselbergs, Mustafa Atalay, Antony P. Attwood, Anthony J. Balmforth, Hanneke Basart, John Beilby, Lori L. Bonnycastle, Paolo Brambilla, Marcel Bruinenberg, Harry Campbell, Daniel I. Chasman, Peter S. Chines, John M. Connell, William Cookson, Ulf de Faire, Femmie de Vegt, Mariano Dei, Maria Dimitriou, Sarah Edkins, Karol Estrada, David M. Evans, Martin Farrall, Marco M. Ferrario, Jean Ferrières, Lude Franke, Francesca Frau, Pablo V. Gejman, Harald Grallert, Henrik Grönberg, Vilmundur Gudnason, Alistair S. Hall, Per Hall, Anna Liisa Hartikainen, Caroline Hayward, Nancy L. Heard-Costa, Andrew C. Heath, Johannes Hebebrand, Georg Homuth, Frank B. Hu, Sarah E. Hunt, Elina Hyppönen, Carlos Iribarren, Kevin B. Jacobs, John Olov Jansson, Antti Jula, Mika Kähönen, Sekar Kathiresan, Frank Kee, Kay Tee Khaw, Mika Kivimaki, Wolfgang Koenig, Aldi T. Kraja, Meena Kumari, Kari Kuulasmaa, Johanna Kuusisto, Jaana H. Laitinen, Timo A. Lakka, Claudia Langenberg, Lenore J. Launer, Lars Lind, Jaana Lindström, Jianjun Liu, Antonio Liuzzi, Marja Liisa Lokki, Mattias Lorentzon, Pamela A.Madden Magnusson, P. A.M. Magnusson, Paolo Manunta, Diana Marek, Winfried März, Irene Mateo Leach, Barbara McKnight, Sarah E. Medland, Evelin Mihailov, Lili Milani, Grant W. Montgomery, Vincent Mooser, Thomas W. Mühleisen, Patricia B. Munroe, Arthur W. Musk, Narisu Narisu, Gerjan Navis, George Nicholson, Ellen A. Nohr, Ken K. Ong, Ben A. Oostra, Colin N.A. Palmer, Aarno Palotie, John F. Peden, Nancy Pedersen, Annette Peters, Ozren Polasek, Anneli Pouta, Peter P. Pramstaller, Inga Prokopenko, Carolin Pütter, Aparna Radhakrishnan, Olli Raitakari, Augusto Rendon, Fernando Rivadeneira, Igor Rudan, Timo E. Saaristo, Jennifer G. Sambrook, Alan R. Sanders, Serena Sanna, Jouko Saramies, Sabine Schipf, Stefan Schreiber, Heribert Schunkert, So Youn Shin, Stefano Signorini, Juha Sinisalo, Boris Skrobek, Nicole Soranzo, Alena Stancáková, Klaus Stark, Jonathan C. Stephens, Kathleen Stirrups, Ronald P. Stolk, Michael Stumvoll, Amy J. Swift, Eirini V. Theodoraki, Barbara Thorand, David Alexandre Tregouet, Elena Tremoli, Melanie M.Van der Klauw, Joyce B.J.van Meurs, Sita H. Vermeulen, Jorma Viikari, Jarmo Virtamo, Veronique Vitart, Gérard Waeber, Zhaoming Wang, Elisabeth Widén, Sarah H. Wild, Gonneke Willemsen, Bernhard R. Winkelmann, Jacqueline C.M. Witteman, Bruce H.R. Wolffenbuttel, Andrew Wong, Alan F. Wright, M. Carola Zillikens, Philippe Amouyel, Bernhard O. Boehm, Eric Boerwinkle, Dorret I. Boomsma, Mark J. Caulfield, Stephen J. Chanock, L. Adrienne Cupples, Daniele Cusi, George V. Dedoussis, Jeanette Erdmann, Johan G. Eriksson, Paul W. Franks, Philippe Froguel, Christian Gieger, Ulf Gyllensten, Anders Hamsten, Tamara B. Harris, Christian Hengstenberg, Andrew A. Hicks, Aroon Hingorani, Anke Hinney, Albert Hofman, Kees G. Hovingh, Kristian Hveem, Thomas Illig, Marjo Riitta Jarvelin, Karl Heinz Jöckel, Sirkka M. Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, Lambertus A. Kiemeney, Diana Kuh, Markku Laakso, Terho Lehtimäki, Douglas F. Levinson, Nicholas G. Martin, Andres Metspalu, Andrew D. Morris, Markku S. Nieminen, Inger Njølstad, Claes Ohlsson, Albertine J. Oldehinkel, Willem H. Ouwehand, Lyle J. Palmer, Brenda Penninx, Chris Power, Michael A. Province, Bruce M. Psaty, Lu Qi, Rainer Rauramaa, Paul M. Ridker, Samuli Ripatti, Veikko Salomaa, Nilesh J. Samani, Harold Snieder, Thorkild I.A. Sørensen, Timothy D. Spector, Kari Stefansson, Anke Tönjes, Jaakko Tuomilehto, André G. Uitterlinden, Matti Uusitupa, Pim van der Harst, Peter Vollenweider, Henri Wallaschofski, Nicholas J. Wareham, Hugh Watkins, H. Erich Wichmann, James F. Wilson, Goncalo R. Abecasis, Themistocles L. Assimes, Inês Barroso, Michael Boehnke, Ingrid B. Borecki, Panos Deloukas, Caroline S. Fox, Timothy Frayling, Leif C. Groop, Talin Haritunian, Iris M. Heid, David Hunter, Robert C. Kaplan, Fredrik Karpe,MiriamMoffatt, Karen L. Mohlke, Jeffrey R. O’Connell, Yudi Pawitan, Eric E. Schadt, David Schlessinger, Valgerdur Steinthorsdottir, David P. Strachan, Unnur Thorsteinsdottir, Cornelia M.van Duijn, Peter M. Visscher, Anna Maria Di Blasio, Joel N. Hirschhorn, Cecilia M. Lindgren, Andrew P. Morris, David Meyre, André Scherag, Mark I. McCarthy, Elizabeth K. Speliotes, Kari E. North, Ruth J.F. Loos

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

49 Scopus citations

Abstract

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) has led to the discoveries of many common variants associated with complex human diseases. There is a growing recognition that identifying "causal" rare variants also requires large-scale meta-analysis. The fact that association tests with rare variants are performed at the gene level rather than at the variant level poses unprecedented challenges in the meta-analysis. First, different studies may adopt different gene-level tests, so the results are not compatible. Second, gene-level tests require multivariate statistics (i.e., components of the test statistic and their covariance matrix), which are difficult to obtain. To overcome these challenges, we propose to perform gene-level tests for rare variants by combining the results of single-variant analysis (i.e., p values of association tests and effect estimates) from participating studies. This simple strategy is possible because of an insight that multivariate statistics can be recovered from single-variant statistics, together with the correlation matrix of the single-variant test statistics, which can be estimated from one of the participating studies or from a publicly available database. We show both theoretically and numerically that the proposed meta-analysis approach provides accurate control of the type I error and is as powerful as joint analysis of individual participant data. This approach accommodates any disease phenotype and any study design and produces all commonly used gene-level tests. An application to the GWAS summary results of the Genetic Investigation of ANthropometric Traits (GIANT) consortium reveals rare and low-frequency variants associated with human height. The relevant software is freely available.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)236-248
Number of pages13
JournalAmerican Journal of Human Genetics
Volume93
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 8 2013
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Genetics
  • Genetics(clinical)

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