Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29022581›Full record

ArticleNature2017

The impact of rare variation on gene expression across tissues.

Xin Li, Yungil Kim, Emily K Tsang, Joe R Davis, Farhan N Damani, Colby Chiang, Gaelen T Hess, Zachary Zappala, Benjamin J Strober, Alexandra J Scott and 24 more

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 163 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
163citing papers in PubMed
15.1field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

163 citing papers in PubMed, 289 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
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  5. Population-scale detection of methylation outliers from long-read genome sequencing.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026
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  16. Antisense oligonucleotide depletion ofmedRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025
    Article
  17. Article
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  20. Article

103 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

34 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.

Xin LiDepartment of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Yungil KimDepartment of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore 21218, Maryland, USA.
Emily K TsangDepartment of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Joe R DavisDepartment of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Farhan N DamaniDepartment of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore 21218, Maryland, USA.
Colby ChiangMcDonnell Genome Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri 63108, USA.
Gaelen T HessDepartment of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Zachary ZappalaDepartment of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Benjamin J StroberDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
Alexandra J ScottMcDonnell Genome Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri 63108, USA.
Amy LiDepartment of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Andrea GannaAnalytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
Michael C BassikDepartment of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Jason D MerkerDepartment of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
GTEx Consortium
Laboratory, Data Analysis &Coordinating Center (LDACC)—Analysis Working Group
Statistical Methods groups—Analysis Working Group
Enhancing GTEx (eGTEx) groups
NIH Common Fund
NIH/NCI
NIH/NHGRI
NIH/NIMH
NIH/NIDA
Biospecimen Collection Source Site—NDRI
Biospecimen Collection Source Site—RPCI
Biospecimen Core Resource—VARI
Brain Bank Repository—University of Miami Brain Endowment Bank
Leidos Biomedical—Project Management
ELSI Study
Genome Browser Data Integration &Visualization—EBI
Genome Browser Data Integration &Visualization—UCSC Genomics Institute, University of California Santa Cruz
Ira M HallMcDonnell Genome Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri 63108, USA.
Alexis BattleDepartment of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore 21218, Maryland, USA.
Stephen B MontgomeryDepartment of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Stanford University · USJohns Hopkins University · USJames S. McDonnell Foundation · USBroad Institute · US

Funding

INSTITUTIONAL TRAINING GRANT IN GENOME SCIENCET32HG000044 · NHGRI · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI MICHAEL P. SNYDER · 1995 to 2026
$32.2M
Clinically Relevant Genome Variation DatabaseU01HG007436 · NHGRI · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI BUSTAMANTE, CARLOS DANIEL, PLON, SHARON E. · 2013 to 2016
$10.5M
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING TRAINING PROGRAMT32GM007057 · NIGMS · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI KANOLD, PATRICK O, KARCHIN, RACHEL · 1985 to 2023
$10.4M
Optimizing imputation for diverse populations in a distributed frameworkU01HG009080 · NHGRI · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI KENNY, EIMEAR ELIZABETH · 2016 to 2020
$5.2M
Training Program in Biostatistics for Cancer ResearchT32CA096520 · NCI · RICE UNIVERSITY · PI KIMMEL, MAREK, YUAN, YING · 2003 to 2023
$4.5M
LIMBIC &MEDULLARY MECH. IN COCAINE-RELATED SUDDEN DEATHR01DA006227 · NIDA · UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · PI MASH, DEBORAH C. · 1990 to 2012
$3.7M
Epigenomic variation atlas across human tissues and individuals in GTExU01HG007610 · NHGRI · MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · PI KELLIS, MANOLIS · 2014 to 2016
$3.0M
Methods for high-resolution analysis of genetic effects on gene expressionR01MH101814 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA · PI BUSTAMANTE, CARLOS DANIEL, DERMITZAKIS, EMMANOUIL · 2013 to 2016
$2.3M
Methods for analysis of regulatory variation in cellular differentiationR01GM120167 · NIGMS · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI BATTLE, ALEXIS · 2016 to 2019
$1.9M
Predicting causal non-coding variants in a founder populationR01HG008150 · NHGRI · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI MONTGOMERY, STEPHEN · 2015 to 2017
$1.4M
COMPUTATIONAL METHODS FOR PROTEOMIC ANALYSISK22HG000044 · NHGRI · UNIVERSITY OF UTAH · PI GIDDINGS, MORGAN CORINNE · 2000 to 2005
$1.3M
3/3 Building integrative CNS networks for genomic analysis of autismR01MH109905 · NIMH · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI BATTLE, ALEXIS · 2016 to 2020
$1.2M
NHGRI NIH HHS K22 HG000044NHGRI NIH HHS R01 HG008150NHGRI NIH HHS T32 HG000044NHGRI NIH HHS U01 HG007436NHGRI NIH HHS U01 HG007610NHGRI NIH HHS U01 HG009080NIDA NIH HHS R01 DA006227NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM120167NIGMS NIH HHS T32 GM007057NIH HHS 1R01MH109905-01NIH HHS R01 HG008150NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH101814NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH109905
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Rare genetic variants are abundant in humans and are expected to contribute to individual disease risk. While genetic association studies have successfully identified common genetic variants associated with susceptibility, these studies are not practical for identifying rare variants. Efforts to distinguish pathogenic variants from benign rare variants have leveraged the genetic code to identify deleterious protein-coding alleles, but no analogous code exists for non-coding variants. Therefore, ascertaining which rare variants have phenotypic effects remains a major challenge. Rare non-coding variants have been associated with extreme gene expression in studies using single tissues, but their effects across tissues are unknown. Here we identify gene expression outliers, or individuals showing extreme expression levels for a particular gene, across 44 human tissues by using combined analyses of whole genomes and multi-tissue RNA-sequencing data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project v6p release. We find that 58% of underexpression and 28% of overexpression outliers have nearby conserved rare variants compared to 8% of non-outliers. Additionally, we developed RIVER (RNA-informed variant effect on regulation), a Bayesian statistical model that incorporates expression data to predict a regulatory effect for rare variants with higher accuracy than models using genomic annotations alone. Overall, we demonstrate that rare variants contribute to large gene expression changes across tissues and provide an integrative method for interpretation of rare variants in individual genomes.

Indexed as

Gene Expression ProfilingBayes TheoremFemaleGenetic VariationGenome, HumanGenomicsGenotypeHumansMaleModels, GeneticOrgan SpecificitySequence Analysis, RNA

Identifiers

PMID29022581
PMCPMC5877409
OpenAlexW2521004108

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.