Cell Specific eQTL Analysis without Sorting Cells.

PLoS Genet
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

The functional consequences of trait associated SNPs are often investigated using expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) mapping. While trait-associated variants may operate in a cell-type specific manner, eQTL datasets for such cell-types may not always be available. We performed a genome-environment interaction (GxE) meta-analysis on data from 5,683 samples to infer the cell type specificity of whole blood cis-eQTLs. We demonstrate that this method is able to predict neutrophil and lymphocyte specific cis-eQTLs and replicate these predictions in independent cell-type specific datasets. Finally, we show that SNPs associated with Crohn's disease preferentially affect gene expression within neutrophils, including the archetypal NOD2 locus.

Year of Publication
2015
Journal
PLoS Genet
Volume
11
Issue
5
Pages
e1005223
Date Published
2015 May
ISSN
1553-7404
URL
DOI
10.1371/journal.pgen.1005223
PubMed ID
25955312
PubMed Central ID
PMC4425538
Links