Assoctests: An R package for genetic association studies

Abstract

The R package AssocTests provides some procedures which are commonly used in genetic association studies. These procedures are population stratification correction through eigenvectors, principal coordinates of clusterings, Tracy-Widom test, distance regression, single-marker test, maximum test based on three Cochran-Armitage trend tests, non-parametric trend test, and non-parametric maximum test. The trait values for these methods should be discrete or continuous. The discrete traits can be coded by 1/0 for cases/controls. The genotype values can be 0, 1, or 2 indicating the number of risk alleles for a biallelic single-nucleotide polymorphism. This article introduces the methods and algorithms implemented in the package. Some examples are provided to illustrate the package’s capability.