The genetic architecture of human complex phenotypes is modulated by linkage disequilibrium and heterozygosity

Abstract

Abstract We propose an extended Gaussian mixture model for the distribution of causal effects of common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for human complex phenotypes that depends on linkage disequilibrium (LD) and heterozygosity (H), while also allowing for independent components for small and large effects. Using a precise methodology showing how genome-wide association studies (GWASs) summary statistics (z-scores) arise through LD with underlying causal SNPs, we applied the model to GWAS of multiple human phenotypes. Our findings indicated that causal effects are distributed with dependence on total LD and H, whereby SNPs with lower total LD and H are more likely to be causal with larger effects; this dependence is consistent with models of the influence of negative pressure from natural selection. Compared with the basic Gaussian mixture model it is built on, the extended model—primarily through quantification of selection pressure—reproduces with greater accuracy the empirical distributions of z-scores, thus providing better estimates of genetic quantities, such as polygenicity and heritability, that arise from the distribution of causal effects.