role of immunity and inflammation in stress-related disorders42,43. Less is known about the role of the identified RNAs LINC02335, MIR5007, TUC338 and LINC02571 in regards to the biology of PTSD. However, preliminary work from our group including imaging and psychophysiology highlights the value of deep phenotyping in conducting functional investigations into the meaning of GWAS findings8. Extensive follow-up work is needed to replicate our findings and to determine the function of identified genes and their relationship to putative pathological processes. For example, in SCZ the MHC locus is now thought to influence risk, in part, through pruning of synapses using immune machinery rather than through classical immune pathways44. These ancestry-specific results are preliminary, and even larger PTSD GWAS will facilitate the identification of plausible neurobiological targets for PTSD.
