Litcius/Paper detail

Recovering genotypes and phenotypes using allele-specific genes

Gamze Gürsoy, Nancy Lu, Sarah Wagner, Mark Gerstein

2021Genome biology14 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

With the recent increase in RNA sequencing efforts using large cohorts of individuals, surveying allele-specific gene expression is becoming increasingly frequent. Here, we report that, despite not containing explicit variant information, a list of genes known to be allele-specific in an individual is enough to recover key variants and link the individuals back to their genotypes and phenotypes. This creates a privacy conundrum.

Topics & Concepts

BiologyAlleleGeneticsGenePhenotypeGenotypeHuman geneticsComputational biologyGenomics and Rare DiseasesCancer Genomics and DiagnosticsSingle-cell and spatial transcriptomics