Recovering genotypes and phenotypes using allele-specific genes

With the recent increase in RNA sequencing efforts using large cohorts of individuals, surveying allele-specific gene expression is becoming increasingly frequent. Here, we report that, despite not containing explicit variant information, a list of genes known to be allele-specific in an individual is enough to recover key variants and link the individuals back to their genotypes and phenotypes. This creates a privacy conundrum. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13059-021-02477-x.