The effect of retrospective sampling on estimates of prediction error for multifactor dimensionality reduction

A roadmap to multifactor dimensionality reduction methods

Complex diseases are defined to be determined by multiple genetic and environmental factors alone as well as in interactions. To analyze interactions in genetic data, many statistical methods have been suggested, with most of them relying on statistical regression models. Given the known limitations of classical methods, approaches from the machine-learning community have also become attractive. From this latter family, a fast-growing collection of methods emerged that are based on the Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction (MDR) approach. Since its first introduction, MDR has enjoyed great popularity in applications and has been extended and modified multiple times. Based on a literature search, we here provide a systematic and comprehensive overview of these suggested methods. The methods are described in detail, and the availability of implementations is listed. Most recent approaches offer to deal with large-scale data sets and rare variants, which is why we expect these methods to even gain in popularity.

Applications of multifactor dimensionality reduction to genome-wide data using the R package 'MDR'

This chapter describes how to use the R package 'MDR' to search and identify gene-gene interactions in high-dimensional data and illustrates applications for exploratory analysis of multi-locus models by providing specific examples.

An R package implementation of multifactor dimensionality reduction

Background

A breadth of high-dimensional data is now available with unprecedented numbers of genetic markers and data-mining approaches to variable selection are increasingly being utilized to uncover associations, including potential gene-gene and gene-environment interactions. One of the most commonly used data-mining methods for case-control data is Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction (MDR), which has displayed success in both simulations and real data applications. Additional software applications in alternative programming languages can improve the availability and usefulness of the method for a broader range of users.

Results

We introduce a package for the R statistical language to implement the Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction (MDR) method for nonparametric variable selection of interactions. This package is designed to provide an alternative implementation for R users, with great flexibility and utility for both data analysis and research. The 'MDR' package is freely available online at http://www.r-project.org/. We also provide data examples to illustrate the use and functionality of the package.

Conclusions

MDR is a frequently-used data-mining method to identify potential gene-gene interactions, and alternative implementations will further increase this usage. We introduce a flexible software package for R users.