Published in

Frontiers Media, Frontiers in Genetics, (5), 2014

DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2014.00107

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Estimating heritability of complex traits from genome-wide association studies using IBS-based Haseman–Elston regression

Journal article published in 2014 by Guo-Bo Chen ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Exploring heritability of complex traits is a central focus of statistical genetics. Among various previously proposed methods to estimate heritability, variance component methods are advantageous when estimating heritability using markers. Due to the high-dimensional nature of data obtained from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in which genetic architecture is often unknown, the most appropriate heritability estimator model is often unclear. The Haseman-Elston (HE) regression is a variance component method that was initially only proposed for linkage studies. However, this study presents a theoretical basis for a modified HE that models linkage disequilibrium for a quantitative trait, and consequently can be used for GWAS. After replacing identical by descent (IBD) scores with identity by state (IBS) scores, we applied the IBS-based HE regression to single-marker association studies (scenario I) and estimated the variance component using multiple markers (scenario II). In scenario II, we discuss the circumstances in which the HE regression and the mixed linear model are equivalent; the disparity between these two methods is observed when a covariance component exists for the additive variance. When we extended the IBS-based HE regression to case-control studies in a subsequent simulation study, we found that it provided a nearly unbiased estimate of heritability, more precise than that estimated via the mixed linear model. Thus, for the case-control scenario, the HE regression is preferable. GEnetic Analysis Repository (GEAR; http://sourceforge.net/p/gbchen/wiki/GEAR/) software implemented the HE regression method and is freely available.