Integrative analysis of 3604 GWAS reveals multiple novel cell type-specific regulatory associations.
Genome Biol
; 23(1): 13, 2022 01 07.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34996498
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Genome-wide association study (GWAS) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are known to preferentially co-locate to active regulatory elements in tissues and cell types relevant to disease aetiology. Further characterisation of associated cell type-specific regulation can broaden our understanding of how GWAS signals may contribute to disease risk.RESULTS:
To gain insight into potential functional mechanisms underlying GWAS associations, we developed FORGE2 ( https//forge2.altiusinstitute.org/ ), which is an updated version of the FORGE web tool. FORGE2 uses an expanded atlas of cell type-specific regulatory element annotations, including DNase I hotspots, five histone mark categories and 15 hidden Markov model (HMM) chromatin states, to identify tissue- and cell type-specific signals. An analysis of 3,604 GWAS from the NHGRI-EBI GWAS catalogue yielded at least one significant disease/trait-tissue association for 2,057 GWAS, including > 400 associations specific to epigenomic marks in immune tissues and cell types, > 30 associations specific to heart tissue, and > 60 associations specific to brain tissue, highlighting the key potential of tissue- and cell type-specific regulatory elements. Importantly, we demonstrate that FORGE2 analysis can separate previously observed accessible chromatin enrichments into different chromatin states, such as enhancers or active transcription start sites, providing a greater understanding of underlying regulatory mechanisms. Interestingly, tissue-specific enrichments for repressive chromatin states and histone marks were also detected, suggesting a role for tissue-specific repressed regions in GWAS-mediated disease aetiology.CONCLUSION:
In summary, we demonstrate that FORGE2 has the potential to uncover previously unreported disease-tissue associations and identify new candidate mechanisms. FORGE2 is a transparent, user-friendly web tool for the integrative analysis of loci discovered from GWAS.
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Polimorfismo de Nucleótido Simple
/
Estudio de Asociación del Genoma Completo
Tipo de estudio:
Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Genome Biol
Asunto de la revista:
BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR
/
GENETICA
Año:
2022
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos