Efficient network-guided multi-locus association mapping with graph cuts

Chloé-Agathe Azencott, Dominik Grimm, Mahito Sugiyama, Yoshinobu Kawahara, Karsten M. Borgwardt

Abstract: As an increasing number of genome-wide association studies reveal the limitations of the attempt to explain phenotypic heritability by single genetic loci, there is a recent focus on associating complex phenotypes with sets of genetic loci. Although several methods for multi-locus mapping have been proposed, it is often unclear how to relate the detected loci to the growing knowledge about gene pathways and networks. The few methods that take biological pathways or networks into account are either restricted to investigating a limited number of predetermined sets of loci or do not scale to genome-wide settings.