Multi-trait analysis of genome-wide association summary statistics using MTAG.

Nat Genet
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

We introduce multi-trait analysis of GWAS (MTAG), a method for joint analysis of summary statistics from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of different traits, possibly from overlapping samples. We apply MTAG to summary statistics for depressive symptoms (N  = 354,862), neuroticism (N = 168,105), and subjective well-being (N = 388,538). As compared to the 32, 9, and 13 genome-wide significant loci identified in the single-trait GWAS (most of which are themselves novel), MTAG increases the number of associated loci to 64, 37, and 49, respectively. Moreover, association statistics from MTAG yield more informative bioinformatics analyses and increase the variance explained by polygenic scores by approximately 25%, matching theoretical expectations.

Year of Publication
2018
Journal
Nat Genet
Volume
50
Issue
2
Pages
229-237
Date Published
2018 02
ISSN
1546-1718
DOI
10.1038/s41588-017-0009-4
PubMed ID
29292387
PubMed Central ID
PMC5805593
Links
Grant list
G1001799 / MRC_ / Medical Research Council / United Kingdom
P01 HD031921 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States
MR/N01104X/2 / MRC_ / Medical Research Council / United Kingdom
R01 HD060726 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States
MC_QA137853 / MRC_ / Medical Research Council / United Kingdom
R01 HD073342 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States
R01 MH107649 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States
U01 MH109539 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States
647648 / ERC_ / European Research Council / International
P30 AG034532 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
R01 MH101244 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States
P01 AG005842 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
P30 AG012810 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
R01 AG042568 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
T32 AG000186 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States