Detecting Genetic Interactions for Quantitative Traits Using m-Spacing Entropy Measure.
A number of statistical methods for detecting gene-gene interactions have been developed in genetic association studies with binary traits. However, many phenotype measures are intrinsically quantitative and categorizing continuous traits may not always be straightforward and meaningful. Association of gene-gene interactions with an observed distribution of such phenotypes needs to be investigated directly without categorization. Information gain based on entropy measure has previously been successful in identifying genetic associations with binary traits. We extend the usefulness of this information gain by proposing a nonparametric evaluation method of conditional entropy of a quantitative phenotype associated with a given genotype. Hence, the information gain can be obtained for any phenotype distribution. Because any functional form, such as Gaussian, is not assumed for the entire distribution of a trait or a given genotype, this method is expected to be robust enough to be applied to any phenotypic association data. Here, we show its use to successfully identify the main effect, as well as the genetic interactions, associated with a quantitative trait.
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Eulji University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
Jaeyong
J
Yee
Department of Bioinformatics, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Min-Seok
MS
Kwon
Department of Informational Statistics, Korea University, Jochiwon, Republic of Korea.
Seohoon
S
Jin
Department of Statistics, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Taesung
T
Park
Department of Preventive Medicine, Eulji University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
Mira
M
Park
D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003198:Computer Simulation; D019277:Entropy; D004843:Epistasis, Genetic; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D016011:Normal Distribution; D010641:Phenotype; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci / Q000235:genetics*