To determine whether any genes harbor more associated SNPs than expected by chance, we performed a gene-based test for each personality scale (VEGAS, Versatile Gene-based Association Study33). VEGAS tests for association on a per-gene basis, by considering the P-value of all SNPs within genes (including +/−50 kb from the 5′ and 3′ UTR), accounting for the number of SNPs per gene, and linkage disequilibrium between the SNPs. As such, the test identifies genes that show more signals of association than expected by chance given their length and linkage disequilibrium between the SNPs. The gene-based test was performed on the meta-analysis association results.
