Cited by 336Genetic Associations and EpidemiologyGenetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and AnimalsGenetic and phenotypic traits in livestock

Systematic differences in discovery of genetic effects on gene expression and complex traits

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Mostafavi, Hakhamanesh, Spence, Jeffrey P., Naqvi, Sahin, Pritchard, Jonathan K.·2023·Nature Genetics

Abstract

Most signals in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of complex traits implicate noncoding genetic variants with putative gene regulatory effects. However, currently identified regulatory variants, notably expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs), explain only a small fraction of GWAS signals. Here, we show that GWAS and cis-eQTL hits are systematically different: eQTLs cluster strongly near transcription start sites, whereas GWAS hits do not. Genes near GWAS hits are enriched in key functional annotations, are under strong selective constraint and have complex regulatory landscapes across different tissue/cell types, whereas genes near eQTLs are depleted of most functional annotations, show relaxed constraint, and have simpler regulatory landscapes. We describe a model to understand these observations, including how natural selection on complex traits hinders discovery of functionally relevant eQTLs. Our results imply that GWAS and eQTL studies are systematically biased toward different types of variant, and support the use of complementary functional approaches alongside the next generation of eQTL studies.

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  1. [68]Consortium GTEx. The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) pilot analysis: multitissue gene regulation in humans. Science 348, 648– 660 (2015). 25954001 PMC4547484

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Authors
Mostafavi, H., Spence, J. P., Naqvi, S., & Pritchard, J. K.
Affiliations
Stanford University (US)
Corresponding author
  • Mostafavi, Hakhamanesh
  • Pritchard, Jonathan K.
Venue
Nature Genetics
Published
2023-10-19
Volume
55
Issue
11
Pages
1866-1875
ISSN
  • 1061-4036 (ISSN-L)
  • 1546-1718
OpenAlex
W4387782515
Cited by
336
References
80
Citations by year
2026: 109 · 2025: 128 · 2024: 90 · 2023: 8 · 2021: 1
FWCI
55.62
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Genetics (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Human Genome Research Institute (R01HG008140, R01HG011432, U01HG012069)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock
Keywords
expression quantitative trait loci, cis-eQTL, complex traits, non-coding variants, transcription start sites, natural selection, selective constraint, regulatory landscape, tissue-specific gene expression
MeSH terms
Gene Expression Regulation, Gene Expression, Multifactorial Inheritance, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study

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