Co-occurring expression and methylation QTLs allow detection of common causal variants and shared biological mechanisms

Inherited genetic variation affects local gene expression and DNA methylation in humans. Most expression quantitative trait loci (cis-eQTLs) occur at the same genomic location as a methylation QTL (cis-meQTL), suggesting a common causal variant and shared mechanism. Using DNA and RNA from peripheral blood of Bangladeshi individuals, here we use co-localization methods to identify eQTL-meQTL pairs likely to share a causal variant. We use partial correlation and mediation analyses to identify >400 of these pairs showing evidence of a causal relationship between expression and methylation (i.e., shared mechanism) with many additional pairs we are underpowered to detect. These co-localized pairs are enriched for SNPs showing opposite associations with expression and methylation, although many SNPs affect multiple CpGs in opposite directions. This work demonstrates the pervasiveness of co-regulated expression and methylation in the human genome. Applying this approach to other types of molecular QTLs can enhance our understanding of regulatory mechanisms.