The extent, causes and implications of pleiotropy among complex traits

Grant number: DP160101056 | Funding period: 2016 - 2020

Completed

Abstract

The project seeks to understand how a DNA mutation can affect many characters or traits. Many traits are called complex because they are controlled by a very large number of genes, most of which have small effects. Complex traits include traits important in medicine (such as susceptibility to heart disease) and in agriculture (such as tenderness of meat). Because there are many genes affecting each trait, most genes have small effects which makes them hard to identify. The fact that a mutation that has a small effect on a complex trait also has a larger effect on a less complex trait may help us to identify the mutation and use it in agriculture or medicine.

Related publications (10)

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Phantom epistasis between unlinked loci.

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Widespread signatures of natural selection across human complex traits and functional genomic categories

Jian Zeng, Angli Xue, Longda Jiang, Luke R Lloyd-Jones, Yang Wu, Huanwei Wang, Zhili Zheng, Loic Yengo, Kathryn E Kemper, Michael E Goddard, Naomi R Wray, Peter M Visscher, Jian Yang

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Understanding how natural selection has shaped genetic architecture of complex traits is of importance in medical and evolutionary..

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Genome-wide fine-mapping identifies pleiotropic and functional variants that predict many traits across global cattle populations

Ruidong Xiang, Iona M MacLeod, Hans D Daetwyler, Gerben de Jong, Erin O'Connor, Chris Schrooten, Amanda J Chamberlain, Michael E Goddard

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The difficulty in finding causative mutations has hampered their use in genomic prediction. Here, we present a methodology to fine..

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Meta-analysis for milk fat and protein percentage using imputed sequence variant genotypes in 94,321 cattle from eight cattle breeds

Irene van den Berg, Ruidong Xiang, Janez Jenko, Hubert Pausch, Mekki Boussaha, Chris Schrooten, Thierry Tribout, Arne B Gjuvsland, Didier Boichard, Oyvind Nordbo, Marie-Pierre Sanchez, Mike E Goddard

2020-07-07

BACKGROUND: Sequence-based genome-wide association studies (GWAS) provide high statistical power to identify candidate causal muta..

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Effect direction meta-analysis of GWAS identifies extreme, prevalent and shared pleiotropy in a large mammal

Ruidong Xiang, Irene van den Berg, Iona M MacLeod, Hans D Daetwyler, Michael E Goddard

2020-02-28

In genome-wide association studies (GWAS), variants showing consistent effect directions across populations are considered as true..

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Quantifying the contribution of sequence variants with regulatory and evolutionary significance to 34 bovine complex traits

Ruidong Xiang, Irene van den Berg, Iona M MacLeod, Benjamin J Hayes, Claire P Prowse-Wilkins, Min Wang, Sunduimijid Bolormaa, Zhiqian Liu, Simone J Rochfort, Coralie M Reich, Brett A Mason, Christy J Vander Jagt, Hans D Daetwyler, Mogens S Lund, Amanda J Chamberlain, Michael E Goddard

2019-09-24

Many genome variants shaping mammalian phenotype are hypothesized to regulate gene transcription and/or to be under selection. How..

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Genotype-by-environment interactions inferred from genetic effects on phenotypic variability in the UK Biobank

Huanwei Wang, Futao Zhang, Jian Zeng, Yang Wu, Kathryn E Kemper, Angli Xue, Min Zhang, Joseph E Powell, Michael E Goddard, Naomi R Wray, Peter M Visscher, Allan F McRae, Jian Yang

2019-08-01

Genotype-by-environment interaction (GEI) is a fundamental component in understanding complex trait variation. However, it remains..

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The use of mid-infrared spectra to map genes affecting milk composition

A Benedet, PN Ho, R Xiang, S Bolormaa, M De Marchi, ME Goddard, JE Pryce

2019-08-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy analysis of milk samples to incr..

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Genome variants associated with RNA splicing variations in bovine are extensive shared between tissues

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BACKGROUND: Mammalian phenotypes are shaped by numerous genome variants, many of which may regulate gene transcription or RNA spli..

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Genome-wide comparative analyses of correlated and uncorrelated phenotypes identify major pleiotropic variants in dairy cattle

Ruidong Xiang, Iona M MacLeod, Sunduimijid Bolormaa, Michael E Goddard

2017-08-23

While single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with multiple phenotype have been reported, the knowledge of pleiotropy of..

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