Silvia C. Vega

Technical Reproducibility of Genotyping SNP Arrays Used in Genome-Wide Association Studies

During the last several years, high-density genotyping SNP arrays have facilitated genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that successfully identified common genetic variants associated with a variety of phenotypes. However, each of the identified genetic variants only explains a very small fraction of the underlying genetic contribution to the studied phenotypic trait. Moreover, discordance observed in results between independent GWAS indicates the potential for Type I and II errors. High reliability of genotyping technology is needed to have confidence in using SNP data and interpreting GWAS results. Therefore, reproducibility of two widely genotyping technology platforms from Affymetrix and Illumina was assessed by analyzing four technical replicates from each of the six individuals in five laboratories. Genotype concordance of 99.40% to 99.87% within a laboratory for the sample platform, 98.59% to 99.86% across laboratories for the same platform, and 98.80% across genotyping platforms was observed. Moreover, arrays with low quality data were detected when comparing genotyping data from technical replicates, but they could not be detected according to venders’ quality control (QC) suggestions. Our results demonstrated the technical reliability of currently available genotyping platforms but also indicated the importance of incorporating some technical replicates for genotyping QC in order to improve the reliability of GWAS results. The impact of discordant genotypes on association analysis results was simulated and could explain, at least in part, the irreproducibility of some GWAS findings when the effect size (i.e. the odds ratio) and the minor allele frequencies are low.

Assessing sources of inconsistencies in genotypes and their effects on genome-wide association studies with HapMap samples

The discordance in results of independent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) indicates the potential for Type I and Type II errors. We assessed the repeatibility of current Affymetrix technologies that support GWAS. Reasonable reproducibility was observed for both raw intensity and the genotypes/copy number variants. We also assessed consistencies between different SNP arrays and between genotype calling algorithms. We observed that the inconsistency in genotypes was generally small at the specimen level. To further examine whether the differences from genotyping and genotype calling are possible sources of variation in GWAS results, an association analysis was applied to compare the associated SNPs. We observed that the inconsistency in genotypes not only propagated to the association analysis, but was amplified in the associated SNPs. Our studies show that inconsistencies between SNP arrays and between genotype calling algorithms are potential sources for the lack of reproducibility in GWAS results.

Variability in GWAS analysis: the impact of genotype calling algorithm inconsistencies

The Genome-Wide Association Working Group (GWAWG) is part of a large-scale effort by the MicroArray Quality Consortium (MAQC) to assess the quality of genomic experiments, technologies and analyses for genome-wide association studies (GWASs). One of the aims of the working group is to assess the variability of genotype calls within and between different genotype calling algorithms using data for coronary artery disease from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. Our results show that the choice of genotyping algorithm (for example, Bayesian robust linear model with Mahalanobis distance classifier (BRLMM), the corrected robust linear model with maximum-likelihood-based distances (CRLMM) and CHIAMO (developed and implemented by the WTCCC)) can introduce marked variability in the results of downstream case–control association analysis for the Affymetrix 500K array. The amount of discordance between results is influenced by how samples are combined and processed through the respective genotype calling algorithm, indicating that systematic genotype errors due to computational batch effects are propagated to the list of single-nucleotide polymorphisms found to be significantly associated with the trait of interest. Further work using HapMap samples shows that inconsistencies between Affymetrix arrays and calling algorithms can lead to genotyping errors that influence downstream analysis.

Batch effects in the BRLMM genotype calling algorithm influence GWAS results for the Affymetrix 500K array

The Affymetrix GeneChip Human Mapping 500K array is common for genome-wide association studies (GWASs). Recent findings highlight the importance of accurate genotype calling algorithms to reduce the inflation in Type I and Type II error rates. Differential results due to genotype calling errors can introduce severe bias in case–control association study results. Using data from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, 1991 individuals with coronary artery disease (CAD) and 1500 controls from the UK Blood Services (NBS) were genotyped on the Affymetrix 500K array. Different batch sizes and compositions were used in the Bayesian Robust Linear Model with Mahalanobis distance classifier (BRLMM) genotype calling algorithm to assess the batch effect on downstream association analysis. Results show that composition (cases and controls genotyped simultaneously or separate) and size (number of individuals processed by BRLMM at a time) can create 2–3% discordance in the results for quality control and statistical analysis and may contribute to the lack of reproducibility between GWASs. The changes in batch size are largely responsible for differential single-nucleotide polymorphism results, yet we observe evidence of an interactive effect of batch size and composition that contributes to discordant results in the list of significantly associated loci.

Assessment of variability in GWAS with CRLMM genotyping algorithm on WTCCC coronary artery disease

The robustness of genome-wide association study (GWAS) results depends on the genotyping algorithms used to establish the association. This paper initiated the assessment of the impact of the Corrected Robust Linear Model with Maximum Likelihood Classification (CRLMM) genotyping quality on identifying real significant genes in a GWAS with large sample sizes. With microarray image data from the Wellcome Trust Case–Control Consortium (WTCCC), 1991 individuals with coronary artery disease (CAD) and 1500 controls, genetic associations were evaluated under various batch sizes and compositions. Experimental designs included different batch sizes of 250, 350, 500, 2000 samples with different distributions of cases and controls in each batch with either randomized or simply combined (4:3 case–control ratios) or separate case–control samples as well as whole 3491 samples. The separate composition could create 2–3% discordance in the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) results for quality control/statistical analysis and might contribute to the lack of reproducibility between GWAS. CRLMM shows high genotyping accuracy and stability to batch effects. According to the genotypic and allelic tests (P<5.0 × 10−7), nine significant signals on chromosome 9 were found consistently in all batch sizes with combined design. Our findings are critical to optimize the reproducibility of GWAS and confirm the genetic role in the pathophysiology of CAD.