A method for meta-analysis of genome searches: application to simulated data

Genome searches have been performed for many complex traits, and in some cases several searches have been performed in a single disease. Replication of significant results is rare, and a systematic method of reviewing results from a number of searches is needed. A method for meta-analysis is presented which provides a systematic descriptive overview of the separate analyses while dealing with some of the problems specific to meta-analysis of genome searches. The results of two separate meta-analyses correctly indicate the presence of susceptibility loci on chromosomes 1, 3, and 5 in the GAW11 Problem 2 data.