Optimized summary-statistic-based single-cell eQTL meta-analysis

J José Alquicira-Hernández D Daniel Kaptijn M Maryna Korshevniuk J Jimmy Tsz Hang Lee L Lieke Michielsen D Drew Neavin R Roy Oelen A Aida Ripoll-Cladellas M Martijn Vochterloo Y Yoshinari Ando (RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences) O Odmaa Bayaraa I Irene van Blokland M Mame M. Dieng M M. Grace Gordon H Hilde E. Groot P Pim van der Harst C Chung-Chau Hon Y Youssef Idaghdour V Vinu Manikanda J Jonathan Moody (RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences) M Martijn C. Nawijn Y Yukinori Okada O Oliver Stegle W Woong-Yang Park D Deepa Rajagopalan T Tala Shahin J Jay W. Shin (RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences) G Gosia Trynka H Harm-Jan Westra S Seyhan Yazar J Jimmie Ye M Martin Hemberg (Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.) A Ahmed Mahfouz M Marta Melé J Joseph E. Powell L Lude Franke M Monique G. P. van der Wijst M Marc Jan Bonder

Abstract

Abstract The identification of expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) holds great potential to improve the interpretation of disease-associated genetic variation. As many such disease-associated variants act in a context-, tissue- or even cell-type-specific manner, single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data is uniquely suitable for identifying the specific cell type or context in which these genetic variants act. However, due to the limited sample sizes in single-cell studies, discovery of cell-type-specific eQTLs is now limited. To improve power to detect such eQTLs, large-scale joint analyses are needed. These are however, complicated by privacy constraints due to sharing of genotype data and the measurement and technical variety across different scRNA-seq datasets as a result of differences in mRNA capture efficiency, experimental protocols, and sequencing strategies. A solution to these issues is a federated weighted meta-analysis (WMA) approach in which summary statistics are integrated using dataset-specific weights. Here, we compare different strategies and provide best practice recommendations for eQTL WMA across scRNA-seq datasets.

Article Details

Volume / Issue Vol. 15, Issue 1
Published August 04, 2025
ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher Nature Portfolio

Journal Info

Scientific Reports

Nature Portfolio

ISSN: 2045-2322 Open Access Life Sciences

Authors (38)

J

José Alquicira-Hernández

D

Daniel Kaptijn

M

Maryna Korshevniuk

J

Jimmy Tsz Hang Lee

L

Lieke Michielsen

D

Drew Neavin

R

Roy Oelen

A

Aida Ripoll-Cladellas

M

Martijn Vochterloo

Y

Yoshinari Ando

RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences

O

Odmaa Bayaraa

I

Irene van Blokland

M

Mame M. Dieng

M

M. Grace Gordon

H

Hilde E. Groot

P

Pim van der Harst

C

Chung-Chau Hon

Y

Youssef Idaghdour

V

Vinu Manikanda

J

Jonathan Moody

RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences

M

Martijn C. Nawijn

Y

Yukinori Okada

O

Oliver Stegle

W

Woong-Yang Park

D

Deepa Rajagopalan

T

Tala Shahin

J

Jay W. Shin

RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences

G

Gosia Trynka

H

Harm-Jan Westra

S

Seyhan Yazar

J

Jimmie Ye

M

Martin Hemberg

Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.

A

Ahmed Mahfouz

M

Marta Melé

J

Joseph E. Powell

L

Lude Franke

M

Monique G. P. van der Wijst

M

Marc Jan Bonder