An Analysis on Genomic Correlation for Gallstone Susceptibility

Gallstones, typically benign and harmless hardened deposits of digestive fluids, present in the gallbladder can cause severe painful complications if left untreated and can lead to removal surgery. (Gallstones, 2021) Quantitative Trait Loci ( QTL ) analysis can be used to find potential genetic links through the analysis of logarithm of the odds ( LOD ) scores which can indicate a possible connection between those loci on the mouse chromosome and phenotypic presentation of a trait (Myles & Wayne, 2008) linked to gallstone susceptibility such as weight, presence, severity and liver weight. Analyses were performed using the R/ QTL package on a cohort of mice, in an intercross breed and fed a high-fat diet (Lyons, 2003). Analyses were compared between augmented data sets (to possibly prevent overfitting) and an analysis run on a non-augmented data set.