title: Comparison of Heritability Estimation and Linkage Analysis for Multiple Traits Using Principal Component Analyses.
abstract: A disease trait often can be characterized by multiple phenotypic measurements that can provide complementary information on disease etiology, physiology, or clinical manifestations. Given that multiple phenotypes may be correlated and reflect common underlying genetic mechanisms, the use of multivariate analysis of multiple traits may improve statistical power to detect genes and variants underlying complex traits. The literature, however, has been unclear as to the optimal approach for analyzing multiple correlated traits. In this study, heritability and linkage analysis was performed for six obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) related phenotypes, as well as principal components of the phenotypes and principal components of the heritability (PCHs) using the data from Cleveland Family Study, which include both African and European American families. Our study demonstrates that principal components generally result in higher heritability and linkage evidence than individual traits. Furthermore, the PCHs can be transferred across populations, strongly suggesting that these PCHs reflect traits with common underlying genetic mechanisms for OSAHS across populations. Thus, PCHs can provide useful traits for using data on multiple phenotypes and for genetic studies of trans-ethnic populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.|Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Brian E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Cade
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America.
authors.forename: Heming
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.|Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Kevin J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Gleason
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America.
authors.forename: Emma K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Larkin
authors.affiliation: Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.|Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.|Center for Human Genetic Research and Department of Anesthesia, Pain, and Critical Care Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.|Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Richa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Saxena
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Xihong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.|Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.|Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Redline
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America.
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000235:genetics; D002877:Chromosomes, Human / Q000235:genetics; D005060:Europe / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009820:Ohio; D010641:Phenotype; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics
keywords: estimation; heritability; linkage analysis; principal components; principal components of heritability; sleep apnea