Variant Set Enrichment: An R package to identify disease-associated functional genomic regions

Abstract

Background: Genetic predispositions to diseases populate the noncoding regions of the human genome. Delineating their functional basis can inform on the mechanisms contributing to disease development. However, this remains a challenge due to the poor characterization of the noncoding genome. Here, we propose an R package that can pinpoint which genomic features are etiologically important based on the genetic predispositions. Results: Variant Set Enrichment (VSE) is an R package to calculate the enrichment of a set of disease-associated variants across functionally annotated genomic regions, consequently highlighting the mechanisms important in the etiology of the disease studied. Conclusions: VSE is implemented as an R package and can easily be implemented in any system with R.