Linear mixed model for genome-wide association analysis

Question

[seta]

Dear all,

I would like to apply the linear mixed model on a cohort study to assess the effect of some SNPs on the quantitative traits measure during various periods. As far as I know, the MLMA from GCTA tool can do the linear mixed model association analysis, yes? I found this example code "gcta64 --mlma --bfile test --grm test --pheno test.phen --out test --thread-num 5" . 1) Could you please let me know how is the format of test.phen file for the longitudinal data? 2) I have unrelated individuals, so can I not use the --grm flag?

Thanks in advance