A method for detecting epistasis in genome-wide studies using case-control multi-locus association analysis

作者：Gayan Javier; Gonzalez Perez Antonio; Bermudo Fernando; Saez Maria Eugenia; Royo Jose Luis; Quintas Antonio; Galan Jose Jorge; Moron Francisco Jesus; Ramirez Lorca Reposo; Real Luis Miguel; Ruiz Agustin^*

来源：BMC Genomics, 2008, 9: 360.

DOI：10.1186/1471-2164-9-360

Background: The difficulty in elucidating the genetic basis of complex diseases roots in the many factors that can affect the development of a disease. Some of these genetic effects may interact in complex ways, proving undetectable by current single-locus methodology.
Results: We have developed an analysis tool called Hypothesis Free Clinical Cloning (HFCC) to search for genome-wide epistasis in a case-control design. HFCC combines a relatively fast computing algorithm for genome-wide epistasis detection, with the flexibility to test a variety of different epistatic models in multi-locus combinations. HFCC has good power to detect multi-locus interactions simulated under a variety of genetic models and noise conditions. Most importantly, HFCC can accomplish exhaustive genome-wide epistasis search with large datasets as demonstrated with a 400,000 SNP set typed on a cohort of Parkinson's disease patients and controls.
Conclusion: With the current availability of genetic studies with large numbers of individuals and genetic markers, HFCC can have a great impact in the identification of epistatic effects that escape the standard single-locus association analyses.

• 出版日期2008-7-31