Data from: Estimating in-silico causal effects of DNA methylation on gene expression through genetic anchors in airway epithelium from youth with and without asthma

Expression quantitative trait methylation (eQTM) analyses have identified
numerous associations between DNA methylation (DNAm) and gene expression,
but the causal pathways underlying such associations remain poorly
understood. Using SNPs as genetic anchors, we examined potential causal
effects between DNAm and gene expression in cis- and trans-associations in
nasal epithelial samples from youth with (n=219) and without (n=236)
asthma. We conducted causal mediation analyses to assess whether DNA
methylation affects gene expression or vice versa, by employing an
adaptive bootstrap for the joint significance test to estimate causal
effects for 38,562 eQTM pairs. DNAm is a plausible cause of gene
expression in 73% of pairs. Genes in these eQTM pairs were significantly
enriched in immune pathways and associated with asthma phenotypes. We
replicated eQTL findings in various cell types in lung tissue and eQTL and
meQTL findings in upper airway. These results suggest DNAm as a promising
target for asthma prevention and therapy.