Genetic causes of traits and diseases are being intensively researched today. And more than 250,000 such connections are now known. In many of these cases, however, it is unclear how the genetic variant found affects the corresponding trait. One possible explanation is that the genetic variant affects gene expression, that is, how the gene is read, and thus alters trait expression.
The international eQTLGen Consortium has therefore conducted large-scale research on how genetic variants influence the expression of genes in the blood. A major finding of the study was that genetic regulations were found in close proximity to the gene in 88 per cent of all the genes analysed.
