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

Patrick Turley, Raymond K. Walters, Omeed Maghzian, Aysu Okbay, James J. Lee, Mark Alan Fontana, Tuan Anh Nguyen-Viet, Robbee Wedow, Meghan Zacher, Nicholas A. Furlotte, Patrik Magnusson, Sven Oskarsson, Magnus Johannesson, Peter M. Visscher, David Laibson, David Cesarini, Benjamin M. Neale, Daniel J. Benjamin, Michelle Agee, Babak AlipanahiAdam Auton, Robert K. Bell, Katarzyna Bryc, Sarah L. Elson, Pierre Fontanillas, David A. Hinds, Bethann S. Hromatka, Karen E. Huber, Aaron Kleinman, Nadia K. Litterman, Matthew H. McIntyre, Joanna L. Mountain, Carrie A.M. Northover, J. Fah Sathirapongsasuti, Olga V. Sazonova, Janie F. Shelton, Suyash Shringarpure, Chao Tian, Joyce Y. Tung, Vladimir Vacic, Catherine H. Wilson, Steven J. Pitts

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    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 eff = 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.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)229-237
    Number of pages9
    JournalNature Genetics
    Volume50
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Feb 1 2018

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Genetics

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