A unifying framework for rare variant association testing in family-based designs, including higher criticism approaches, SKATs, and burden tests

Julian Hecker, F. William Townes, Priyadarshini Kachroo, Cecelia A. Laurie, Jessica Lasky-Su, John Ziniti, Michael H. Cho, Scott T. Weiss, Nan M. Laird, Christoph Lange

Abstract: Analysis of rare variants in family-based studies remains a challenge. Transmission-based approaches provide robustness against population stratification, but the evaluation of the significance of test statistics based on asymptotic theory can be imprecise. Also, power will depend heavily on the choice of the test statistic and on the underlying genetic architecture of the locus, which will be generally unknown.