title: Comparison of strategies for identification of regulatory quantitative trait loci of transcript expression traits.
abstract: In order to identify regulatory genes, we determined the heritability of gene transcripts, performed linkage analysis to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs), and evaluated the evidence for shared genetic effects among transcripts with co-localized QTLs in non-diseased participants from 14 CEPH (Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain) Utah families. Seventy-six percent of transcripts had a significant heritability and 54% of them had LOD score >or= 1.8. Bivariate genetic analysis of 15 transcripts that had co-localized QTLs on 4q28.2-q31.1 identified significant genetic correlation among some transcripts although no improvement in the magnitude of LOD scores in this region was noted. Similar results were found in analysis of 12 transcripts, that had co-localized QTLs in the 13q34 region. Principal-component analyses did not improve the ability to identify chromosomal regions of co-localized gene expressions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Bank of America Center, 137 East Franklin Street, Suite 306, CB #8050, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514, USA. noraf@unc.edu
authors.forename: Nora
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Franceschini
authors.forename: Mary K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Wojczynski
authors.forename: Harald H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Göring
authors.forename: Juan Manuel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Peralta
authors.forename: Thomas D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Dyer
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Kari E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: North