FastQTLmapping: an ultra-fast and memory efficient package for mQTL-like analysis

Abstract Background FastQTLmapping addresses the need for an ultra-fast and memory-efficient solver capable of handling exhaustive multiple regression analysis with a vast number of dependent and explanatory variables, including covariates. This challenge is especially pronounced in methylation quan...

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Main Authors: Xingjian Gao, Jiarui Li, Xinxuan Liu, Qianqian Peng, Han Jing, Sibte Hadi, Andrew E. Teschendorff, Sijia Wang, Fan Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2025-04-01
Series:BMC Bioinformatics
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-025-06130-3
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Summary:Abstract Background FastQTLmapping addresses the need for an ultra-fast and memory-efficient solver capable of handling exhaustive multiple regression analysis with a vast number of dependent and explanatory variables, including covariates. This challenge is especially pronounced in methylation quantitative trait loci (mQTL)-like analysis, which typically involves high-dimensional genetic and epigenetic data. Results FastQTLmapping is a precompiled C++ software solution accelerated by Intel MKL and GSL, freely available at https://github.com/Fun-Gene/fastQTLmapping . Compared to state-of-the-art methods (MatrixEQTL, FastQTL, and TensorQTL), fastQTLmapping demonstrated an order of magnitude speed improvement, coupled with a marked reduction in peak memory usage. In a large dataset consisting of 3500 individuals, 8 million SNPs, 0.8 million CpGs, and 20 covariates, fastQTLmapping completed the entire mQTL analysis in 4.5 h with only 13.1 GB peak memory usage. Conclusions FastQTLmapping effectively expedites comprehensive mQTL analyses by providing a robust and generic approach that accommodates large-scale genomic datasets with covariates. This solution has the potential to streamline mQTL-like studies and inform future method development for efficient computational genomics.
ISSN:1471-2105