Omnigenic model information

The Omnigenic Model, first proposed by Evan A. Boyle, Yang I. Li, and Jonathan K. Pritchard, describes a hypothesis regarding the heritability of complex traits.^[1] Expanding beyond polygenes, the authors propose that all genes expressed within a cell affect the expression of a given trait. In addition, the model states that the peripheral genes, ones that do not have a direct impact on expression, explain more heritability of traits than core genes, ones that have a direct impact on expression. The process that the authors propose that facilitates this effect is called “network pleiotropy”, in which peripheral genes can affect core genes, not by having a direct effect, but rather by virtue of being mediated within the same cell.^[2]