BACKGROUND: In recent years there has been a growing interest in the role of copy number variations (CNV) in genetic diseases. Though there has been rapid development of technologies and statistical methods devoted to detection in CNVs from array data, the inherent challenges in data quality associated with most hybridization techniques remains a challenging problem in CNV association studies. RESULTS: To help address these data quality issues in the context of family-based association studies, we introduce a statistical framework for the intensity-based array data that takes into account the family information for copy-number assignment. The method is an adaptation of traditional methods for modeling SNP genotype data that assume Gaussian mixture model, whereby CNV calling is performed for all family members simultaneously and leveraging within family-data to reduce CNV calls that are incompatible with Mendelian inheritance while still allowing de-novo CNVs. Applying this method to simulation studies and a genome-wide association study in asthma, we find that our approach significantly improves CNV calls accuracy, and reduces the Mendelian inconsistency rates and false positive genotype calls. The results were validated using qPCR experiments. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, we have demonstrated that the use of family information can improve the quality of CNV calling and hopefully give more powerful association test of CNVs.

SUMMARY: Associations between DNA polymorphisms and mRNA abundance are a natural target of genetic investigations, and microarrays facilitate genome-wide and transcriptome-wide surveys of these associations. This work is motivated by emerging requirements for data architectures and algorithm interfaces to allow flexible exploration of public and private archives of genotyping and expression arrays. Using R/Bioconductor facilities, Phase II HapMap genotypes and Illumina 47K expression assay results archived on multiple populations may be interactively explored and analyzed using commodity hardware. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Open Source. Bioconductor 2.3 packages GGtools, GGBase, GGdata, hmyriB36. Freely available on the web at (http://www.bioconductor.org).

Abstract Motivation: Estimating the frequency distribution of copy number variants (CNVs) is an important aspect of the effort to characterize this new type of genetic variation. Currently, most studies report a strong skew toward low-frequency CNVs. In this article, our goal is to investigate the frequencies of CNVs. We employ a two-step procedure for the CNV frequency estimation process. We use family information a posteriori to select only the most reliable CNV regions, i.e. those showing high rates of Mendelian transmission. Results: Our results suggest that the current skew toward low-frequency CNVs may not be representative of the true frequency distribution, but may be due, among other reasons, to the non-negligible false negative rates that characterize CNV detection methods. Moreover, false positives are also likely, as low-frequency CNVs are hard to detect with small sample sizes and technologies that are not ideally suited for their detection. Without appropriate validation methods, such as incorporation of biologically relevant information (for example, in our case, the transmission of heritable CNVs from parents to offspring), it is difficult to assess the validity of specific CNVs, and even harder to obtain reliable frequency estimates. Availability: Software implementing the methods described in this article is available for download at the following address: http://www.isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k36162 Contact: [email protected] Supplementary informantion: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.