In the third example (Fig. 4, right-hand column), the effect estimates vary in sign, and are modest except for a very strong signal in whole blood. While whole-blood-specific effects were estimated to be rare, mash—again, using Bayes’ theorem—recognized that the strong signal at this eQTL outweighs the background information, and estimated a strong effect in blood with insignificant effects in other tissues. This illustrates that mash, although focused on combining information across tissues, can still recognize—and shed light on—tissue-specific patterns when they exist.
