Figure 3. Comparison of the heritability of cis eQTLs estimated in the SAFHS study with the R² of the corresponding cis eQTLs in GHS.

Data were extracted from Supplementary Table 4 in Göring et al. [4] and comparisons were restricted to genes having a corresponding gene symbol in GHS. Heritability in the SAFHS was estimated by linkage analysis and accounts for the whole variability at a locus while R² refers to a single eSNP (the best eSNP) and therefore underestimates the global variability affecting gene expression at a locus. The data used to generate this figure are provided in File S5. The median R² was globally lower than the heritability, consistent with the fact that the R² is referring to a single SNP whereas heritability reflects the whole genetic variation at a locus.