A flexible Bayesian framework for modeling haplotype association with disease, allowing for dominance effects of the underlying causative variants

Am J Hum Genet. 2006 Oct;79(4):679-94. doi: 10.1086/508264. Epub 2006 Aug 31.

Abstract

Multilocus analysis of single-nucleotide-polymorphism (SNP) haplotypes may provide evidence of association with disease, even when the individual loci themselves do not. Haplotype-based methods are expected to outperform single-SNP analyses because (i) common genetic variation can be structured into haplotypes within blocks of strong linkage disequilibrium and (ii) the functional properties of a protein are determined by the linear sequence of amino acids corresponding to DNA variation on a haplotype. Here, I propose a flexible Bayesian framework for modeling haplotype association with disease in population-based studies of candidate genes or small candidate regions. I employ a Bayesian partition model to describe the correlation between marker-SNP haplotypes and causal variants at the underlying functional polymorphism(s). Under this model, haplotypes are clustered according to their similarity, in terms of marker-SNP allele matches, which is used as a proxy for recent shared ancestry. Haplotypes within a cluster are then assigned the same probability of carrying a causal variant at the functional polymorphism(s). In this way, I can account for the dominance effect of causal variants, here corresponding to any deviation from a multiplicative contribution to disease risk. The results of a detailed simulation study demonstrate that there is minimal cost associated with modeling these dominance effects, with substantial gains in power over haplotype-based methods that do not incorporate clustering and that assume a multiplicative model of disease risks.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Alleles
  • Bayes Theorem*
  • Cytochrome P-450 CYP2D6 / genetics
  • Genes, Dominant*
  • Genetic Predisposition to Disease*
  • Haplotypes
  • Humans
  • Linkage Disequilibrium
  • Logistic Models
  • Models, Genetic
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide*

Substances

  • Cytochrome P-450 CYP2D6