Ivette Zelaya | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2016

Rare copy number variants in NRXN1 and CNTN6 increase risk for Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome (TS) is highly heritable, although identification of its underlying genetic cause(s) has remained elusive. We examined a European ancestry sample composed of 2,435 TS cases and 4,100 controls for copy-number variants (CNVs) using SNP microarrays and identified two genome-wide significant loci that confer a substantial increase in risk for TS (NRXN1, OR=20.3, 95%CI [2.6-156.2], p=6.0 x 10-6; CNTN6, OR=10.1, 95% CI [2.3-45.4], p=3.7 x 10-5). Approximately 1% of TS cases carried one of these CNVs, indicating that rare structural variation contributes significantly to the genetic architecture of TS.

Genetics↗

bioRxiv2015

Characterization of expression quantitative trait loci in extensively phenotyped pedigrees ascertained for bipolar disorder

The observation that variants regulating gene expression (expression quantitative trait loci, eQTL) are at a high frequency among SNPs associated with complex traits has made the genome-wide characterization of gene expression an important tool in genetic mapping studies of such traits. As part of a study to identify genetic loci contributing to bipolar disorder and a wide range of BP-related quantitative traits in members of 26 pedigrees from Costa Rica and Colombia, we measured gene expression in lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from 786 pedigree members. The study design enabled us to comprehensively reconstruct the genetic regulatory network in these families, provide estimates of heritability, identify eQTL, evaluate missing heritability for the eQTL, and quantify the number of different alleles contributing to any given locus.

Genomics↗