knitr::opts_chunk$set( collapse = TRUE, comment = "#>", cache = TRUE )
library(TwoSampleMR)
# Get data for the vignette ao <- available_outcomes() bmi2014_exp_dat <- extract_instruments(outcomes = 'ieu-a-2') bmi_exp_dat <- clump_data(bmi2014_exp_dat) save(ao, bmi_exp_dat, bmi2014_exp_dat, file = file.path("inst", "extdata", "vig_exposure.RData"), compress = "xz")
load(system.file("extdata", "vig_exposure.RData", package = "TwoSampleMR"))
A data frame of the instruments for an exposure is required. Each line has the information for one variant for one exposure. The minimum information required for MR analysis is the following:
SNP
- rs ID beta
- The effect size. If the trait is binary then log(OR) should be usedse
- The standard error of the effect sizeeffect_allele
- The allele of the SNP which has the effect marked in beta
Other information that is useful for MR can also be provided:
other_allele
- The non-effect alleleeaf
- The effect allele frequencyPhenotype
- The name of the phenotype for which the SNP has an effectYou can also provide the following extra information:
chr
- Physical position of variant (chromosome)position
- Physical position of variant (position)samplesize
- Sample size for estimating the effect sizencase
- Number of casesncontrol
- Number of controlspval
- The P-value for the SNP's association with the exposureunits
- The units in which the effects are presentedgene
- The gene or other annotation for the the SNPThe data can be read in from a text file using the read_exposure_data
function. The file must have a header with column names corresponding to the columns described above.
An example of a text file with the default column names is provided as part of the package, the first few rows look like this:
Phenotype SNP beta se effect_allele other_allele eaf pval units gene samplesize BMI rs10767664 0.19 0.0306122448979592 A T 0.78 5e-26 kg/m2 BDNF 225238 BMI rs13078807 0.1 0.0204081632653061 G A 0.2 4e-11 kg/m2 CADM2 221431 BMI rs1514175 0.07 0.0204081632653061 A G 0.43 8e-14 kg/m2 TNNI3K 207641 BMI rs1558902 0.39 0.0204081632653061 A T 0.42 5e-120 kg/m2 FTO 222476 BMI rs10968576 0.11 0.0204081632653061 G A 0.31 3e-13 kg/m2 LRRN6C 247166 BMI rs2241423 0.13 0.0204081632653061 G A 0.78 1e-18 kg/m2 LBXCOR1 227886
The exact path to the file will be different on everyone's computer, but it can be located like this:
bmi_file <- system.file("extdata", "bmi.txt", package = "TwoSampleMR")
You can read the data in like this:
bmi_exp_dat <- read_exposure_data(bmi_file) head(bmi_exp_dat)
The output from this function is a new data frame with standardised column names:
SNP
exposure
beta.exposure
se.exposure
effect_allele.exposure
other_allele.exposure
eaf.exposure
mr_keep.exposure
pval.exposure
pval_origin.exposure
id.exposure
data_source.exposure
units.exposure
gene.exposure
samplesize.exposure
The function attempts to match the columns to the ones it expects. It also checks that the data type is as expected.
If the required data for MR to be performed is not present (SNP name, effect size, standard error, effect allele) for a particular SNP, then the column mr_keep.exposure
will be FALSE
.
If the text file does not have default column names, this can still be read in as follows. Here are the first few rows of an example:
rsid,effect,SE,a1,a2,a1_freq,p-value,Units,Gene,n rs10767664,0.19,0.030612245,A,T,0.78,5.00E-26,kg/m2,BDNF,225238 rs13078807,0.1,0.020408163,G,A,0.2,4.00E-11,kg/m2,CADM2,221431 rs1514175,0.07,0.020408163,A,G,0.43,8.00E-14,kg/m2,TNNI3K,207641 rs1558902,0.39,0.020408163,A,T,0.42,5.00E-120,kg/m2,FTO,222476
Note that this is a CSV file, with commas separating fields. The file is located here:
bmi2_file <- system.file("extdata/bmi.csv", package = "TwoSampleMR")
To read in this data:
bmi_exp_dat <- read_exposure_data( filename = bmi2_file, sep = ",", snp_col = "rsid", beta_col = "effect", se_col = "SE", effect_allele_col = "a1", other_allele_col = "a2", eaf_col = "a1_freq", pval_col = "p-value", units_col = "Units", gene_col = "Gene", samplesize_col = "n" ) head(bmi_exp_dat)
If the Phenotype
column is not provided (as is the case in this example) then it will assume that the phenotype's name is simply "exposure". This is entered in the exposure
column. It can be renamed manually:
bmi_exp_dat$exposure <- "BMI"
If the data already exists as a data frame in R then it can be converted into the correct format using the format_data()
function. For example, here is some randomly created data:
random_df <- data.frame( SNP = c("rs1", "rs2"), beta = c(1, 2), se = c(1, 2), effect_allele = c("A", "T") ) random_df
This can be formatted like so:
random_exp_dat <- format_data(random_df, type = "exposure") random_exp_dat
A number of sources of instruments have already been curated and are available for use. They are provided as data objects in the MRInstruments
package. To install:
remotes::install_github("MRCIEU/MRInstruments")
This package contains a number of data.frames, each of which is a repository of SNP-trait associations. How to access the data frames is detailed below:
The NHGRI-EBI GWAS catalog contains a catalog of significant associations obtained from GWASs. This version of the data is filtered and harmonised to contain associations that have the required data to perform MR, to ensure that the units used to report effect sizes from a particular study are all the same, and other data cleaning operations.
To use the GWAS catalog:
library(MRInstruments) data(gwas_catalog) head(gwas_catalog)
For example, to obtain instruments for body mass index using the Speliotes et al 2010 study:
bmi_gwas <- subset(gwas_catalog, grepl("Speliotes", Author) & Phenotype == "Body mass index") bmi_exp_dat <- format_data(bmi_gwas)
Independent top hits from GWASs on r length(unique(MRInstruments::metab_qtls$phenotype))
metabolites in whole blood are stored in the metab_qtls
data object. Use ?metab_qtls
to get more information.
data(metab_qtls) head(metab_qtls)
For example, to obtain instruments for Alanine:
ala_exp_dat <- format_metab_qtls(subset(metab_qtls, phenotype == "Ala"))
Independent top hits from GWASs on r length(unique(MRInstruments::proteomic_qtls$analyte))
protein levels in whole blood are stored in the proteomic_qtls
data object. Use ?proteomic_qtls
to get more information.
data(proteomic_qtls) head(proteomic_qtls)
For example, to obtain instruments for the ApoH protein:
apoh_exp_dat <- format_proteomic_qtls(subset(proteomic_qtls, analyte == "ApoH"))
Independent top hits from GWASs on r length(unique(MRInstruments::gtex_eqtl$gene_name))
gene identifiers and in r length(unique(MRInstruments::gtex_eqtl$tissue))
tissues are available from the GTEX study in gtex_eqtl
. Use ?gtex_eqtl
to get more information.
data(gtex_eqtl) head(gtex_eqtl)
For example, to obtain instruments for the IRAK1BP1 gene expression levels in subcutaneous adipose tissue:
irak1bp1_exp_dat <- format_gtex_eqtl(subset( gtex_eqtl, gene_name == "IRAK1BP1" & tissue == "Adipose Subcutaneous" ))
Independent top hits from GWASs on r length(unique(MRInstruments::aries_mqtl$gene_name))
DNA methylation levels in whole blood across r length(unique(MRInstruments::aries_mqtl$timepoint))
time points are available from the ARIES study in aries_mqtl
. Use ?aries_mqtl
to get more information.
data(aries_mqtl) head(aries_mqtl)
For example, to obtain instruments for cg25212131 CpG DNA methylation levels in at birth:
cg25212131_exp_dat <- format_aries_mqtl(subset(aries_mqtl, cpg == "cg25212131" & age == "Birth"))
The IEU GWAS database contains the entire summary statistics for thousands of GWASs. You can browse them here: https://gwas.mrcieu.ac.uk/
You can use this database to define the instruments for a particular exposure. You can also use this database to obtain the effects for constructing polygenic risk scores using different p-value thresholds.
You can check the status of the API:
ieugwasr::api_status()
To obtain a list and details about the available GWASs do the following:
ao <- available_outcomes() head(ao)
For information about authentication see https://mrcieu.github.io/ieugwasr/articles/guide.html#authentication.
The available_outcomes()
function returns a table of all the available studies in the database. Each study has a unique ID. e.g., You might obtain
head(subset(ao, select = c(trait, id))) #> trait id #> 1 Schizophrenia ieu-b-5103 #> 2 Schizophrenia ieu-b-5102 #> 3 Schizophrenia ieu-b-5101 #> 4 Schizophrenia ieu-b-5100 #> 5 Schizophrenia ieu-b-5099 #> 6 Schizophrenia ieu-b-5098
To extract instruments for a particular trait using a particular study, for example to obtain SNPs for body mass index using the Locke et al. 2015 GIANT study, you specify the study ID as follows:
bmi2014_exp_dat <- extract_instruments(outcomes = 'ieu-a-2')
str(bmi2014_exp_dat) #> 'data.frame': 79 obs. of 15 variables: #> $ pval.exposure : num 2.18e-08 4.57e-11 5.06e-14 5.45e-10 1.88e-28 ... #> $ samplesize.exposure : num 339152 339065 313621 338768 338123 ... #> $ chr.exposure : chr "1" "1" "1" "1" ... #> $ se.exposure : num 0.003 0.0031 0.0087 0.0029 0.003 0.0037 0.0031 0.003 0.0038 0.003 ... #> $ beta.exposure : num -0.0168 0.0201 0.0659 0.0181 0.0331 0.0497 -0.0227 0.0221 0.0209 0.0175 ... #> $ pos.exposure : int 47684677 78048331 110082886 201784287 72837239 177889480 49589847 96924097 164567689 181550962 ... #> $ id.exposure : chr "ieu-a-2" "ieu-a-2" "ieu-a-2" "ieu-a-2" ... #> $ SNP : chr "rs977747" "rs17381664" "rs7550711" "rs2820292" ... #> $ effect_allele.exposure: chr "G" "C" "T" "C" ... #> $ other_allele.exposure : chr "T" "T" "C" "A" ... #> $ eaf.exposure : num 0.5333 0.425 0.0339 0.5083 0.6083 ... #> $ exposure : chr "Body mass index || id:ieu-a-2" "Body mass index || id:ieu-a-2" "Body mass index || id:ieu-a-2" "Body mass index || id:ieu-a-2" ... #> $ mr_keep.exposure : logi TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE ... #> $ pval_origin.exposure : chr "reported" "reported" "reported" "reported" ... #> $ data_source.exposure : chr "igd" "igd" "igd" "igd" ...
This returns a set of LD clumped SNPs that are GWAS significant for BMI. You can specify various parameters for this function:
p1
= P-value threshold for keeping a SNPclump
= Whether or not to return independent SNPs only (default is TRUE
)r2
= The maximum LD R-square allowed between returned SNPskb
= The distance in which to search for LD R-square valuesBy changing changing the p1
parameter it is possible to obtain SNP effects for constructing polygenic risk scores.
For standard two sample MR it is important to ensure that the instruments for the exposure are independent. Once instruments have been identified for an exposure variable, the IEU GWAS database can be used to perform clumping.
You can provide a list of SNP IDs, the SNPs will be extracted from 1000 genomes data, LD calculated between them, and amongst those SNPs that have LD R-square above the specified threshold only the SNP with the lowest P-value will be retained. To do this, use the following command:
bmi_exp_dat <- clump_data(bmi2014_exp_dat)
str(bmi_exp_dat) #> 'data.frame': 30 obs. of 16 variables: #> $ SNP : chr "rs10767664" "rs13078807" "rs1514175" "rs1558902" ... #> $ beta.exposure : num 0.19 0.1 0.07 0.39 0.11 0.13 0.06 0.09 0.13 0.06 ... #> $ se.exposure : num 0.0306 0.0204 0.0204 0.0204 0.0204 ... #> $ effect_allele.exposure: chr "A" "G" "A" "A" ... #> $ other_allele.exposure : chr "T" "A" "G" "T" ... #> $ eaf.exposure : num 0.78 0.2 0.43 0.42 0.31 0.78 0.41 0.24 0.21 0.21 ... #> $ pval.exposure : num 5e-26 4e-11 8e-14 5e-120 3e-13 ... #> $ units.exposure : chr "kg/m2" "kg/m2" "kg/m2" "kg/m2" ... #> $ gene.exposure : chr "BDNF" "CADM2" "TNNI3K" "FTO" ... #> $ samplesize.exposure : int 225238 221431 207641 222476 247166 227886 209051 218439 209849 220081 ... #> $ exposure : chr "BMI" "BMI" "BMI" "BMI" ... #> $ mr_keep.exposure : logi TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE ... #> $ pval_origin.exposure : chr "reported" "reported" "reported" "reported" ... #> $ units.exposure_dat : chr "kg/m2" "kg/m2" "kg/m2" "kg/m2" ... #> $ id.exposure : chr "FXhiAH" "FXhiAH" "FXhiAH" "FXhiAH" ... #> $ data_source.exposure : chr "textfile" "textfile" "textfile" "textfile" ...
The clump_data()
function takes any data frame that has been formatted to be an exposure data type of data frame. Note that for the instruments in the MRInstruments package the SNPs are already LD clumped.
Note: The LD reference panel only includes SNPs (no INDELs). There are five super-populations from which LD can be calculated, by default European samples are used. Only SNPs with MAF > 0.01 within-population are available.
NOTE: If a variant is dropped from your unclumped data it could be because it is absent from the reference panel. For more flexibility, including using your own LD reference data, see here: https://mrcieu.github.io/ieugwasr/
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