MOKA: a pipeline for multiomics bridged SNP-set kernel association test
The explosion of genomic and multiomics data has created a need for scalable, reproducible tools that integrate functional annotations into genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We introduce the multiomics data bridged Kernel Association test (MOKA) pipeline, a Snakemake-based workflow that automates SNP-set kernel-based association testing by incorporating multiomics data, including gene expression, transcription factor binding, evolutionary conservation scores, and neural network-derived features. This data-bridged architecture enhances variant prioritization and aggregation, improving statistical power in GWAS. MOKA supports population structure correction via spectral decomposition, parallel computation, and post-GWAS analyses, including visualization, Gene Ontology annotation, pathway enrichment, and validation. As a use case, we applied MOKA to a schizophrenia GWAS cohort, identified 89 Bonferroni-significant genes, with a 15.7% validation rate in the disease-specific DisGeNET database and enrichment in pathways relevant to neuropsychiatric disease. MOKA provides a robust, scalable, and extensible framework for functional multiomics integration in genetic studies. It is open-source and available at https://github.com/davidenoma/moka.
Authors
- Rodrigo Ortega Polo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3411-923X)
- David Enoma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7300-8474)
- Dinghao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0441-7431)
- Jingni He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8049-9734)
- Quan Long (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3795-1873)
- Ariel Ghislain Kemogne Kamdoum
Institutions
- University of Lethbridge (CA)
- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (CA)
- University of Calgary (CA)
- Alberta Children's Hospital (CA)
- Monash University (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- G3 Genes Genomes Genetics
- Published
- 2025-12-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkaf296
- Primary Topic
- Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00