Frontiers in Genetics (Jul 2020)

Nearest-Neighbor Projected Distance Regression for Epistasis Detection in GWAS With Population Structure Correction

  • Marziyeh Arabnejad,
  • Courtney G. Montgomery,
  • Patrick M. Gaffney,
  • Brett A. McKinney,
  • Brett A. McKinney

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2020.00784
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11

Abstract

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Nearest-neighbor Projected-Distance Regression (NPDR) is a feature selection technique that uses nearest-neighbors in high dimensional data to detect complex multivariate effects including epistasis. NPDR uses a regression formalism that allows statistical significance testing and efficient control for multiple testing. In addition, the regression formalism provides a mechanism for NPDR to adjust for population structure, which we apply to a GWAS of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We also test NPDR on benchmark simulated genetic variant data with epistatic effects, main effects, imbalanced data for case-control design and continuous outcomes. NPDR identifies potential interactions in an epistasis network that influences the SLE disorder.

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