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In Vivo Modeling of the Morbid Human Genome using Danio rerio
Published on: August 24, 2013
Deconstruction of vulnerability to complex diseases: enhanced effect sizes and power of intermediate phenotypes
David Goldman1, Francesca Ducci
1Laboratory of Neurogenetics, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. dgneuro@mail.nih.gov
Abstract:
The deconstruction of vulnerability to complex disease with the help of intermediate phenotypes, including the heritable and disease-associated endophenotypes, is a legacy of Henri Begleiter. Systematic searches for genes influencing complex disorders, including bipolar disorder, have recently been completed using whole genome association (WGA), identifying a series of validated loci. Using this information, it is possible to compare effect sizes of disease loci discovered in very large samples to the effect sizes of replicated functional loci determining intermediate phenotypes that are of essential interest in psychiatric disorders. It is shown that the genes influencing intermediate phenotypes tend to have a larger effect size. Furthermore, the WGA results reveal that the number of loci of large effect size for complex diseases is limited, and yet multiple functional loci have already been identified for intermediate phenotypes relevant to psychiatric diseases, and without the benefit of WGA.
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