Estimation of Genetic Correlation via Linkage Disequilibrium Score Regression and Genomic Restricted Maximum Likelihood

UNSPECIFIED (2018) Estimation of Genetic Correlation via Linkage Disequilibrium Score Regression and Genomic Restricted Maximum Likelihood. American Journal of Human Genetics, 102 (6). pp. 1185-1194. ISSN 0002-9297

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Abstract

Genetic correlation is a key population parameter that describes the shared genetic architecture of complex traits and diseases. It can be estimated by current state-of-art methods, i.e., linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSC) and genomic restricted maximum likelihood (GREML). The massively reduced computing burden of LDSC compared to GREML makes it an attractive tool, although the accuracy (i.e., magnitude of standard errors) of LDSC estimates has not been thoroughly studied. In simulation, we show that the accuracy of GREML is generally higher than that of LDSC. When there is genetic heterogeneity between the actual sample and reference data from which LD scores are estimated, the accuracy of LDSC decreases further. In real data analyses estimating the genetic correlation between schizophrenia (SCZ) and body mass index, we show that GREML estimates based on ∼150,000 individuals give a higher accuracy than LDSC estimates based on ∼400,000 individuals (from combined meta-data). A GREML genomic partitioning analysis reveals that the genetic correlation between SCZ and height is significantly negative for regulatory regions, which whole genome or LDSC approach has less power to detect. We conclude that LDSC estimates should be carefully interpreted as there can be uncertainty about homogeneity among combined meta-datasets. We suggest that any interesting findings from massive LDSC analysis for a large number of complex traits should be followed up, where possible, with more detailed analyses with GREML methods, even if sample sizes are lesser.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
American Journal of Human Genetics
Additional Information:
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in American Journal of Human Genetics . Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in American Journal of Human Genetics, 102 (6), 2018 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.03.021
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1300/1311
Subjects:
?? linkage disequilibrium score regressiongenomic restricted maximum likelihoodgenetic correlationschizophreniabody mass indexheightsnp heritabilityaccuracybiasednessgenome-wide snpsgeneticsgenetics(clinical) ??
ID Code:
126540
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
16 Aug 2018 08:38
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
17 Dec 2023 01:40