Direct and Indirect Effects of Maternal, Paternal, and Offspring Genotypes: Trio-GCTA

• Published in: Behavior genetics Vol. 51; no. 2; pp. 154 - 161
• Main Authors: Eilertsen, Espen Moen, Jami, Eshim Shahid, McAdams, Tom A., Hannigan, Laurie J., Havdahl, Alexandra S., Magnus, Per, Evans, David M., Ystrom, Eivind
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.03.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Birth weight; Body image; Clinical Psychology; Cohort analysis; Cohort Studies; Families & family life; Family; Fathers; Female; Gene polymorphism; Genome-Wide Association Study - methods; Genomes; Genomics; Genotype; Genotype & phenotype; Genotypes; Health Psychology; Heritability; Humans; Indirect effects; Inheritance Patterns - genetics; Inheritance Patterns - physiology; Male; Maternal Inheritance - genetics; Models, Genetic; Models, Theoretical; Mothers; Original Research; Parents & parenting; Paternal Inheritance - genetics; Phenotype; Phenotypes; Polymorphism; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide - genetics; Psychology; Public Health; Quantitative genetics; Relatives; Single-nucleotide polymorphism; Within-family; Trio-GCTA; Indirect genetic effects; MoBa; Gene–environment correlation
• ISSN: 0001-8244; 1573-3297; 1573-3297
• DOI: 10.1007/s10519-020-10036-6

Indirect genetic effects from relatives may result in misleading quantifications of heritability, but can also be of interest in their own right. In this paper we propose Trio-GCTA, a model for separating direct and indirect genetic effects when genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism data have been collected from parent-offspring trios. The model is applicable to phenotypes obtained from any of the family members. We discuss appropriate parameter interpretations and apply the method to three exemplar phenotypes: offspring birth weight, maternal relationship satisfaction, and paternal body-mass index, using real data from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa).