Association of PHF11 polymorphisms with asthma and allergy

In the report by McClenaghan et al, positive associations were identified but lost upon correction for multiple testing; this approach is arguably overconservative given that it is a replication analysis. The study was powered to detect an association with an OR of at least 1.46, an OR the authors consider a requirement for ‘a major locus modifying asthma risk’. However, results emerging from genome-wide association studies of complex diseases show that apart from the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) locus it is rare to find an association with an OR of this level.