A characterization of cis - and trans -heritability of RNA-Seq-based gene expression

Insights into individual differences in gene expression and its heritability ( h 2 ) can help in understanding pathways from DNA to phenotype. We estimated the heritability of gene expression of 52,844 genes measured in whole blood in the largest twin RNA-Seq sample to date (1497 individuals including 459 monozygotic twin pairs and 150 dizygotic twin pairs) from classical twin modeling and identity-by-state-based approaches. We estimated for each gene h 2 total , composed of cis-heritability ( h 2 cis , the variance explained by single nucleotide polymorphisms in the cis -window of the gene),... Mehr ...