Abstract

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified thousands of variants associated with complex traits, but their biological interpretation often remains unclear. Most of these variants overlap with expression QTLs, indicating their potential involvement in regulation of gene expression. Here, we propose a transcriptome-wide summary statistics-based Mendelian Randomization approach (TWMR) that uses multiple SNPs as instruments and multiple gene expression traits as exposures, simultaneously. Applied to 43 human phenotypes, it uncovers 3,913 putatively causal gene–trait associations, 36% of which have no genome-wide significant SNP nearby in previous GWAS. Using independent association summary statistics, we find that the majority of these loci were missed by GWAS due to power issues. Noteworthy among these links is educational attainment-associated BSCL2, known to carry mutations leading to a Mendelian form of encephalopathy. We also find pleiotropic causal effects suggestive of mechanistic connections. TWMR better accounts for pleiotropy and has the potential to identify biological mechanisms underlying complex traits.

Details

Title
Mendelian randomization integrating GWAS and eQTL data reveals genetic determinants of complex and clinical traits
Author
Porcu, Eleonora 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Rüeger, Sina 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Lepik, Kaido 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Agbessi, Mawussé 4 ; Ahsan, Habibul 5 ; Alves, Isabel 4 ; Andiappan, Anand 6 ; Wibowo Arindrarto 7 ; Awadalla, Philip 4 ; Battle, Alexis 8 ; Beutner, Frank 9 ; Bonder, Marc Jan 10 ; Boomsma, Dorret 11 ; Christiansen, Mark 12 ; Claringbould, Annique 13 ; Deelen, Patrick 14 ; Tõnu Esko 15 ; Marie-Julie Favé 16 ; Franke, Lude 13 ; Frayling, Timothy 17 ; Gharib, Sina A 18 ; Gibson, Gregory 19 ; Heijmans, Bastiaan T 7 ; Gibran Hemani 20 ; Jansen, Rick 21 ; Kähönen, Mika 22 ; Kalnapenkis, Anette 15 ; Silva Kasela 15 ; Kettunen, Johannes 23 ; Kim, Yungil 24 ; Kirsten, Holger 25 ; Kovacs, Peter 26 ; Krohn, Knut 27 ; Kronberg-Guzman, Jaanika 15 ; Kukushkina, Viktorija 15 ; Lee, Bernett 6 ; Lehtimäki, Terho 28 ; Loeffler, Markus 25 ; Marigorta, Urko M 19 ; Hailang Mei 7 ; Milani, Lili 15 ; Montgomery, Grant W 29 ; Müller-Nurasyid, Martina 30 ; Nauck, Matthias 31 ; Nivard, Michel 11 ; Penninx, Brenda 22 ; Perola, Markus 32 ; Pervjakova, Natalia 15 ; Pierce, Brandon L 5 ; Powell, Joseph 33 ; Prokisch, Holger 34 ; Psaty, Bruce M 35 ; Raitakari, Olli T 36 ; Ripatti, Samuli 37 ; Rotzschke, Olaf 6 ; Saha, Ashis 16 ; Scholz, Markus 25 ; Schramm, Katharina 38 ; Seppälä, Ilkka 28 ; Slagboom, Eline P 7 ; Stehouwer, Coen D A 39 ; Stumvoll, Michael 40 ; Sullivan, Patrick 41 ; Peter A C ‘t Hoen 42 ; Teumer, Alexander 43 ; Thiery, Joachim 44 ; Lin, Tong 5 ; Tönjes, Anke 40 ; Jenny van Dongen 11 ; Maarten van Iterson 7 ; Joyce van Meurs 45 ; Veldink, Jan H 46 ; Verlouw, Joost 45 ; Visscher, Peter M 29 ; Völker, Uwe 47 ; Võsa, Urmo 48 ; Harm-Jan Westra 13 ; Wijmenga, Cisca 13 ; Yaghootkar, Hanieh 17 ; Yang, Jian 49 ; Zeng, Biao 19 ; Zhang, Futao 29 ; Beekman, Marian 50 ; Boomsma, Dorret I 11 ; Bot, Jan 51 ; Deelen, Joris 50 ; Peter A C ’t Hoen 52 ; Hofman, Bert A 53 ; Hottenga, Jouke J 11 ; Isaacs, Aaron 54 ; P Mila Jhamai 55 ; Kielbasa, Szymon M 56 ; Lakenberg, Nico 50 ; Luijk, René 50 ; Mei, Hailiang 57 ; Moed, Matthijs 50 ; Nooren, Irene 51 ; Pool, René 11 ; Schalkwijk, Casper G 58 ; P Eline Slagboom 50 ; H Eka D Suchiman 50 ; Swertz, Morris A 59 ; Tigchelaar, Ettje F 13 ; Uitterlinden, André G 45 ; Leonard H van den Berg 51 ; Ruud van der Breggen 50 ; Carla J H van der Kallen 58 ; Freerk van Dijk 59 ; van Duijn, Cornelia M 54 ; Michiel van Galen 52 ; Marleen M J van Greevenbroek 58 ; Diana van Heemst 60 ; Jeroen van Rooij 45 ; Peter van’t Hof 57 ; van Zwet, Erik W 56 ; Vermaat, Martijn 52 ; Verbiest, Michael 45 ; Verkerk, Marijn 45 ; Zhernakova, Dasha V 13 ; Zhernakova, Sasha 13 ; Santoni, Federico A 61 ; Reymond, Alexandre 62 ; Kutalik, Zoltán 2 

 Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland 
 Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland; University Center for Primary Care and Public Health, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Lausanne, Switzerland 
 University Center for Primary Care and Public Health, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Lausanne, Switzerland; Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia 
 Computational Biology, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, ON, Canada 
 Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA 
 Singapore Immunology Network, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore, Singapore 
 Department of Biomedical Data Sciences, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands 
 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA 
 Heart Center Leipzig, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany 
10  Department of Genetics, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK; Genome Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany 
11  Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 
12  Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA 
13  Department of Genetics, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands 
14  Department of Genetics, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Genomics Coordination Center, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands 
15  Estonian Genome Center, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia 
16  Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA 
17  Exeter Medical School, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK 
18  Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA 
19  School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, USA 
20  MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK 
21  Department of Psychiatry and Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 
22  Department of Clinical Physiology, Tampere University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland 
23  Centre for Life Course Health Research, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland 
24  Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Genetics and Genomic Science Department, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA 
25  Institut für Medizinische Informatik, Statistik und Epidemiologie, LIFE – Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany 
26  IFB Adiposity Diseases, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany 
27  Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research, Faculty of Medicine, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany 
28  Department of Clinical Chemistry, Fimlab Laboratories and Finnish Cardiovascular Research Center-Tampere, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland 
29  Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia 
30  Institute of Genetic Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany; Department of Medicine I, University Hospital Munich, Ludwig Maximilian’s University, München, Germany; DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research), partner site Munich Heart Alliance, Munich, Germany 
31  Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany 
32  National Institute for Health and Welfare, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland 
33  Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Garvan-Weizmann Centre for Cellular Genomics, Sydney, Australia 
34  Institute of Human Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany; Institute of Human Genetics, Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany 
35  Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Departments of Epidemiology, Medicine, and Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA 
36  Centre for Population Health Research, Department of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland 
37  Statistical and Translational Genetics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland 
38  DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research), partner site Munich Heart Alliance, Munich, Germany; Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany 
39  Department of Internal Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands 
40  Department of Medicine, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany 
41  Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden 
42  Center for Molecular and Biomolecular Informatics, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 
43  Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany 
44  Institute for Laboratory Medicine, LIFE – Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany 
45  Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 
46  Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands 
47  Interfaculty Institute for Genetics and Functional Genomics, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany 
48  Department of Genetics, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Estonian Genome Center, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia 
49  Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia; Institute for Advanced Research, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China 
50  Molecular Epidemiology Section, Department of Medical Statistics and Bioinformatics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands 
51  SURFsara, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 
52  Department of Human Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands 
53  Department of Epidemiology, ErasmusMC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 
54  Department of Genetic Epidemiology, ErasmusMC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 
55  University Center for Primary Care and Public Health, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Lausanne, Switzerland 
56  Medical Statistics Section, Department of Medical Statistics and Bioinformatics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands 
57  Sequence Analysis Support Core, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands 
58  Department of Internal Medicine and School for Cardiovascular Diseases (CARIM), Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands 
59  Genomics Coordination Center, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands 
60  Department of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands 
61  Endocrine, Diabetes, and Metabolism Service, CHUV and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland 
62  Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland 
Pages
1-12
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Jul 2019
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2263286439
Copyright
© 2019. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.