Figure 4.
A biologically interpretable example of a cis-eGene (IFI44L) that appears to mediate the effects of trans-eSNPs in multiple tissues. The gene IFI44L (A) resides <5 kb away from IFI44 (B), and expression of these genes is associated with a common cis-eQTL that also impacts the expression of multiple genes in trans in multiple tissues. Both IFI44 and IFI44L show statistical evidence of mediation for a similar set of interferon-related genes. Thus, based on this evidence, we infer that at least one of these genes is a cis-mediator, although we cannot know which is (or if both are) the true mediator.
