First-Order Correction of Statistical Significance for Screening Two-Way Epistatic Interactions.

Abstract

If one uses data to identify the most likely epistatic interaction between two genetic units, and then tests if the identified interaction is associated with a phenotype, the nominal statistical evidence will be inflated. Corrections are available but computationally expensive for genome-wide studies. We provide a first-order correction that can be applied in practice with essentially no additional computational cost.