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Abstract:
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In rare variant association studies, aggregating rare and/or low frequency variants, may increase statistical power for detection of the underlying susceptibility gene or region. However, it's unclear which variants, or class of them, in a gene contribute most to the association. We proposed a subregion-based burden test (REBET) to simultaneously select susceptibility genes and identify important underlying sub-regions. The sub-regions are predefined by shared common biologic characteristics, such as the protein domain or functional impact. Based on a subset-based approach considering local correlations between combinations of test statistics of sub-regions, REBET is able to properly control the type I error rate while adjusting for multiple comparisons in a computationally efficient manner. Simulation studies show that REBET can achieve power competitive to alternative methods when rare variants cluster within sub-regions. In two case studies, REBET is able to identify known disease susceptibility genes, and more importantly pinpoint the unreported most susceptible sub-regions, which represent protein domains essential for gene function.
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