ABSTRACT
We introduce Multi-Trait Analysis of GWAS (MTAG), a method for the joint analysis of summary statistics from GWASs of different traits, possibly from overlapping samples. We demonstrate MTAG using data on depressive symptoms (Neff = 354,862), neuroticism (N = 168,105), and subjective well-being (N = 388,538). Compared to 32, 9, and 13 genome-wide significant loci in the single-trait GWASs (most of which are novel), MTAG increases the number of loci to 74, 66, and 60, respectively. Moreover, the association statistics from MTAG yield more informative bioinformatics analyses and, consistent with theoretical calculations, improve prediction accuracy by approximately 25%.
Copyright
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
Posted March 20, 2017.
