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Basic statistical analysis in genetic case-control studies

Nature Protocols volume 6, pages 121–133 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

This protocol describes how to perform basic statistical analysis in a population-based genetic association case-control study. The steps described involve the (i) appropriate selection of measures of association and relevance of disease models; (ii) appropriate selection of tests of association; (iii) visualization and interpretation of results; (iv) consideration of appropriate methods to control for multiple testing; and (v) replication strategies. Assuming no previous experience with software such as PLINK, R or Haploview, we describe how to use these popular tools for handling single-nucleotide polymorphism data in order to carry out tests of association and visualize and interpret results. This protocol assumes that data quality assessment and control has been performed, as described in a previous protocol, so that samples and markers deemed to have the potential to introduce bias to the study have been identified and removed. Study design, marker selection and quality control of case-control studies have also been discussed in earlier protocols. The protocol should take ∼1 h to complete.

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Figure 1: LD plot.
Figure 2: Quantile-quantile plots.
Figure 3: Manhattan plot.

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Acknowledgements

G.M.C. is funded by the Wellcome Trust. F.H.P. is funded by the Welcome Trust. C.A.A. is funded by the Wellcome Trust (WT91745/Z/10/Z). A.P.M. is supported by a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship. K.T.Z. is supported by a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology Unit, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Geraldine M Clarke, Fredrik H Pettersson, Andrew P Morris & Krina T Zondervan

  2. Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK

    Carl A Anderson

  3. GlaxoSmithKline, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, USA.,

    Lon R Cardon

Authors
  1. Geraldine M Clarke
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  2. Carl A Anderson
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  3. Fredrik H Pettersson
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  4. Lon R Cardon
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  5. Andrew P Morris
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  6. Krina T Zondervan
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Contributions

G.M.C. wrote the first draft of the manuscript, wrote scripts and performed analyses. G.M.C., C.A.A., A.P.M. and K.T.Z. revised the manuscript and designed the protocol. L.R.C. conceived the protocol.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Geraldine M Clarke.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Data 1

Example genome wide association (GTA) data. (ZIP 201229 kb)

Supplementary Data 2

Example candidate gene 9 (CG) data. (ZIP 66 kb)

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Clarke, G., Anderson, C., Pettersson, F. et al. Basic statistical analysis in genetic case-control studies. Nat Protoc 6, 121–133 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2010.182

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