AUTHOR=Ratnasekera Pulindu , McNeney Brad 

TITLE=Re-analysis of a Genome-Wide Gene-By-Environment Interaction Study of Case Parent Trios, Adjusted for Population Stratification

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2020.600232

DOI=10.3389/fgene.2020.600232

ISSN=1664-8021

ABSTRACT=<p>We investigate the impact of confounding on the results of a genome-wide association analysis by Beaty et al., which identified multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms that appeared to modify the effect of maternal smoking, alcohol consumption, or multivitamin supplementation on risk of cleft palate. The study sample of case-parent trios was primarily of European and East Asian ancestry, and the distribution of all three exposures differed by ancestral group. Such differences raise the possibility that confounders, rather than the exposures, are the risk modifiers and hence that the inference of gene-environment (<italic>G</italic>×<italic>E</italic>) interaction may be spurious. Our analyses generally confirmed the result of Beaty et al. and suggest the interaction <italic>G</italic>×<italic>E</italic> is driven by the European trios, whereas the East Asian trios were less informative.</p>