1. Large-scale cis- and trans-eQTL analyses identify thousands of genetic loci and polygenic scores that regulate blood gene expression
- Author
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Mahmoud Elansary, Knut Krohn, Eleonora Porcu, Julia Dmitrieva, Michel Georges, Harm-Jan Westra, Isabel Alves, Matthias Nauck, Jan H. Veldink, Joost Verlouw, Anette Kalnapenkis, Silva Kasela, Alex W. Hewitt, Roy Oelen, Willem H. Ouwehand, Frank Beutner, Ilkka Seppälä, Yukihide Momozawa, Samuli Ripatti, Brenda W.J.H. Penninx, Patrick Deelen, Michael Stumvoll, Jenny van Dongen, Jonathan K. Pritchard, Roman Kreuzhuber, Marie-Julie Favé, Bernett Lee, Hailang Mei, Biao Zeng, Philip Awadalla, Shuang Li, Kate Downes, Gibran Hemani, Urko M. Marigorta, Anke Tönjes, Morris Swertz, Robert Warmerdam, Joseph E. Powell, Mika Kähönen, Urmo Võsa, Brandon L. Pierce, Benjamin P. Fairfax, Anand Kumar Andiappan, Bastiaan T. Heijmans, Martina Müller-Nurasyid, Sven Bergmann, Katharina Schramm, Hanieh Yaghootkar, Sina Rüeger, Monique G. P. van der Wijst, Lude Franke, Ting Qi, Rick Jansen, Greg Gibson, Cisca Wijmenga, Marc Jan Bonder, Yungil Kim, Viktorija Kukushkina, Johannes Kettunen, Joachim Thiery, Peter A C 't Hoen, Zoltán Kutalik, Jian Yang, Dylan H. de Vries, Olaf Rötzschke, Maarten van Iterson, Peter Kovacs, Peter M. Visscher, Wibowo Arindrarto, Oliver Stegle, Natalia Pervjakova, Julian C. Knight, Tõnu Esko, Annique Claringbould, Lili Milani, Patrick F. Sullivan, Habibul Ahsan, Timothy M. Frayling, Lin Tong, Uwe Völker, Reyhan Sönmez Flitman, Eline Slagboom, Dorret I. Boomsma, Holger Prokisch, Michel G. Nivard, Mawusse Agbessi, Joyce B. J. van Meurs, Alexis Battle, Futao Zhang, Emmanouil T. Dermitzakis, Morris A. Swertz, Grant W. Montgomery, Terho Lehtimäki, Coen D.A. Stehouwer, Jaanika Kronberg, Holger Kirsten, Olli T. Raitakari, Sina A. Gharib, Bruce M. Psaty, Seyhan Yazar, Markus Loeffler, Harm Brugge, Jose Alquicira Hernandez, Mark W. Christiansen, Andrew A. Brown, Markus Perola, Markus Scholz, Ashis Saha, Alexander Teumer, Psychiatry, APH - Mental Health, Amsterdam Neuroscience - Complex Trait Genetics, Amsterdam Neuroscience - Mood, Anxiety, Psychosis, Stress & Sleep, APH - Digital Health, Groningen Institute for Gastro Intestinal Genetics and Immunology (3GI), Stem Cell Aging Leukemia and Lymphoma (SALL), BIOS Consortium, i2QTL Consortium, 't Hoen, PAC, van Meurs, J., van Dongen, J., van Iterson, M., Swertz, M.A., Jan Bonder, M., Biological Psychology, APH - Personalized Medicine, APH - Methodology, Internal Medicine, Interne Geneeskunde, MUMC+: HVC Pieken Maastricht Studie (9), MUMC+: MA Interne Geneeskunde (3), MUMC+: MA Med Staf Artsass Interne Geneeskunde (9), and RS: Carim - V01 Vascular complications of diabetes and metabolic syndrome
- Subjects
DISORDER ,Multifactorial Inheritance ,Quantitative Trait Loci ,Genome-wide association study ,Quantitative trait locus ,Biology ,Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ,Gene Expression Regulation/genetics ,DISEASE ,LINKS ,Transcriptome ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,All institutes and research themes of the Radboud University Medical Center ,RELEVANCE ,Blood Proteins/genetics ,Gene expression ,Genetics ,Humans ,GENOME-WIDE ASSOCIATION ,Polymorphism ,Gene ,Multifactorial Inheritance/genetics ,030304 developmental biology ,Regulation of gene expression ,RISK ,0303 health sciences ,ARCHITECTURE ,Blood Proteins ,Transcriptome/genetics ,Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide/genetics ,Phenotype ,SERINE BIOSYNTHESIS ,HUMAN TRANSCRIPTOME ,DEFICIENCY ,Gene Expression Regulation ,Expression quantitative trait loci ,genome-wide association studies ,gene expression ,gene regulation ,Quantitative Trait Loci/genetics ,Nanomedicine Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences [Radboudumc 19] ,Single Nucleotide/genetics ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Genome-Wide Association Study - Abstract
Trait-associated genetic variants affect complex phenotypes primarily via regulatory mechanisms on the transcriptome. To investigate the genetics of gene expression, we performed cis- and trans-expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analyses using blood-derived expression from 31,684 individuals through the eQTLGen Consortium. We detected cis-eQTL for 88% of genes, and these were replicable in numerous tissues. Distal trans-eQTL (detected for 37% of 10,317 trait-associated variants tested) showed lower replication rates, partially due to low replication power and confounding by cell type composition. However, replication analyses in single-cell RNA-seq data prioritized intracellular trans-eQTL. Trans-eQTL exerted their effects via several mechanisms, primarily through regulation by transcription factors. Expression of 13% of the genes correlated with polygenic scores for 1,263 phenotypes, pinpointing potential drivers for those traits. In summary, this work represents a large eQTL resource, and its results serve as a starting point for in-depth interpretation of complex phenotypes.Analyses of expression profiles from whole blood of 31,684 individuals identify cis-expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) effects for 88% of genes and trans-eQTL effects for 37% of trait-associated variants.
- Published
- 2021
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