Premium
Detecting epistatic interactions contributing to quantitative traits
Author(s) -
Culverhouse Robert,
Klein Tsvika,
Shan William
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
genetic epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.301
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1098-2272
pISSN - 0741-0395
DOI - 10.1002/gepi.20006
Subject(s) - epistasis , quantitative trait locus , locus (genetics) , trait , permutation (music) , biology , genetics , resampling , computational biology , gene , computer science , statistics , mathematics , acoustics , programming language , physics
The restricted partition method (RPM) is a partitioning algorithm for examining multi‐locus genotypes as (potentially non‐additive) predictors of a quantitative trait. The motivating application was to develop a robust method to examine quantitative phenotypes for epistasis (gene–gene interactions), but the method can be applied without modification to gene–environment interactions. Simulation results indicate that the method provides an efficient way to identify loci contributing epistatically to a quantitative trait, even if the loci have no single locus effects. Statistical significance can be estimated through permutation testing. An example using real data involving the metabolism of a chemotherapy drug is included for illustration. Although the examples in this article involve 2‐locus interactions, the RPM is computationally feasible for the analysis of more than two loci or factors. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.