This article is part of the supplement: Genetic Analysis Workshop 13: Analysis of Longitudinal Family Data for Complex Diseases and Related Risk Factors
Proceedings
Correlation between quantitative traits and correlation between corresponding LOD scores: detection of pleiotropic effects
-
* Corresponding author: Ayse Ulgen au2008@columbia.edu
1 G.H. Sergievsky Center, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA
2 Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics and Metabolism, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10021, USA
3 The Robert S Boas Center for Genomics and Human Genetics, North Shore LIJ Research Institute, Manhasset, New York 11030, USA
BMC Genetics 2003, 4(Suppl 1):S60 doi:10.1186/1471-2156-4-S1-S60
Published: 31 December 2003Abstract
Background
We address the question of whether statistical correlations among quantitative traits lead to correlation of linkage results of these traits. Five measured quantitative traits (total cholesterol, fasting glucose, HDL cholesterol, blood pressure, and triglycerides), and one derived quantitative trait (total cholesterol divided by the HDL cholesterol) are used for phenotype correlation studies. Four of them are used for linkage analysis.
Results
We show that although correlation among phenotypes partially reflects the correlation among linkage analysis results, the LOD-score correlations are on average low. The most significant peaks found by using different traits do not often overlap.
Conclusion
Studying covariances at specific locations in LOD scores may provide clues for further bivariate linkage analyses.