To explore potential functions of the interesting SNPs identified through GWAS, we used the FASTSNP (function analysis and selection tool for SNPs) program (http://fastsnp.ibms.sinica.edu.tw) that analyzes SNP functions based on up-to-date information extracted from 11 external bioinformatic databases at query time (21). In addition, we also evaluated inter-species conservation of the identified SNPs and their flanking sequences using the UCSC Human Genome Browser (http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgGateway).
