Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
- Thomas W. Winkler
- Felix R. Day
- Damien C. Croteau-Chonka
- Andrew R. Wood
- Adam E. Locke
- Reedik Mägi
- Teresa Ferreira
- Tove Fall
- Mariaelisa Graff
- Anne E. Justice
- Jian'an Luan
- Stefan Gustafsson
- Joshua C. Randall
- Sailaja Vedantam
- Tsegaselassie Workalemahu
- Tuomas O. Kilpeläinen
- André Scherag
- Tonu Esko
- Zoltán Kutalik
- Iris M. Heid
- Ruth J. F. Loos
Publication date
April 15, 2014
Summary:
Rigorous organization and quality control (QC) are necessary to facilitate successful genome-wide association meta-analyses (GWAMAs) of statistics aggregated across multiple genome-wide association studies. This protocol provides guidelines for (i) organizational aspects of GWAMAs, and for (ii) QC at the study file level, the meta-level across studies and the meta-analysis output level. Real-world examples highlight issues experienced and solutions developed by the GIANT Consortium that has conducted meta-analyses including data from 125 studies comprising more than 330,000 individuals. We provide a general protocol for conducting GWAMAs and carrying out QC to minimize errors and to guarantee maximum use of the data. We also include details for the use of a powerful and flexible software package called EasyQC. Precise timings will be greatly influenced by consortium size. For consortia of comparable size to the GIANT Consortium, this protocol takes a minimum of about 10 months to complete.
Published in
Nature Protocols
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 9 , p.1 -1
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2014.071
ISSN
17542189
Subjects
Notes
Not held in Research Library - bibliographic reference only
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