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Quality control and conduct of genome-wide association meta-analyses

Open access
The Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits (GIANT) Consortium, Winkler, Thomas W, Day, Felix R, Croteau-Chonka, Damien C, Wood, Andrew R, Locke, Adam E, Mägi, Reedik, Ferreira, Teresa, Fall, Tove, Graff, Mariaelisa, Justice, Anne E, Luan, Jian'an, Gustafsson, Stefan, Randall, Joshua C, Vedantam, Sailaja, Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie, Kilpeläinen, Tuomas O, Scherag, André, Esko, Tonu, Kutalik, Zoltán, Heid, Iris M, Loos, Ruth J F·2014·Nature Protocols

Abstract

Rigorous organization and quality control (QC) are necessary to facilitate successful genome-wide association meta-analyses (GWAMAs) of statistics aggregated across multiple genome-wide association studies. This protocol provides guidelines for (i) organizational aspects of GWAMAs, and for (ii) QC at the study file level, the meta-level across studies and the meta-analysis output level. Real-world examples highlight issues experienced and solutions developed by the GIANT Consortium that has conducted meta-analyses including data from 125 studies comprising more than 330,000 individuals. We provide a general protocol for conducting GWAMAs and carrying out QC to minimize errors and to guarantee maximum use of the data. We also include details for the use of a powerful and flexible software package called EasyQC. Precise timings will be greatly influenced by consortium size. For consortia of comparable size to the GIANT Consortium, this protocol takes a minimum of about 10 months to complete.

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Research works printed but not linked: 23

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Metadata

Authors
The Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits (GIANT) Consortium, Winkler, T. W., Day, F. R., Croteau-Chonka, D. C., Wood, A. R., Locke, A. E., Mägi, R., Ferreira, T., Fall, T., Graff, M., Justice, A. E., Luan, J., Gustafsson, S., Randall, J. C., Vedantam, S., Workalemahu, T., Kilpeläinen, T. O., Scherag, A., Esko, T., Kutalik, Z., Heid, I. M., & Loos, R. J. F.
Venue
Nature Protocols
Published
2014-04-24
Volume
9
Issue
5
Pages
1192-1212
ISSN
  • 1750-2799 (ISSN-L)
  • 1754-2189
OpenAlex
W2115193738
Cited by
539
References
16
FWCI
14.66
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green
Licence
www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)

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The Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits (GIANT) Consortium, Winkler, T. W., Day, F. R., Croteau-Chonka, D. C., Wood, A. R., Locke, A. E., Mägi, R., Ferreira, T., Fall, T., Graff, M., Justice, A. E., Luan, J., Gustafsson, S., Randall, J. C., Vedantam, S., Workalemahu, T., Kilpeläinen, T. O., Scherag, A., Esko, T., . . . Loos, R. J. F. (2014). Quality control and conduct of genome-wide association meta-analyses. Nature Protocols. https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2014.071

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