Genome-wide detection of genotype-environment interactions at biobank scale with fastGxE.

fastGxE identifies 7 genomic loci associated with physical traits, including 4 novel loci, and 18 loci linked to blood biomarkers, with 12 being novel, in UK Biobank data.

• Why it matters: Understanding genotype-environment interactions is crucial for revealing context-specific genetic effects and improving disease etiology insights, which traditional GWAS often overlook.
• What they did: The study developed fastGxE, a scalable genome-wide GxE method that controls for polygenic effects and noise, and applied it to analyze 32 physical traits and 67 blood biomarkers in the UK Biobank, demonstrating speed improvements of 32.98-126.49 times over existing methods.
• The result: fastGxE's application led to the discovery of novel genetic loci associated with physical traits and blood biomarkers, highlighting the importance of gene-environment interplay and enabling potential personalized intervention strategies.