2013/12/10 by Gaurav Bhatia, Arti Tandon, Bhatia, Gaurav +91
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #FOS: Biological sciences #Forensic and Genetic Research #Genetic Associations and Epidemiology #Genetic diversity and population structure #Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1312.2675
openalex publication_date 2013/12/10 · openalex created_date 2022/10/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We scanned through the genomes of 29,141 African Americans, searching for\nloci where the average proportion of African ancestry deviates significantly\nfrom the genome-wide average. We failed to find any genome-wide significant\ndeviations, and conclude that any selection in African Americans since\nadmixture is sufficiently weak that it falls below the threshold of our power\nto detect it using a large sample size. These results stand in contrast to the\nfindings of a recent study of selection in African Americans. That study, which\nhad 15 times fewer samples, reported six loci with significant deviations. We\nshow that the discrepancy is likely due to insufficient correction for multiple\nhypothesis testing in the previous study. The same study reported 14 loci that\nshowed greater population differentiation between African Americans and\nNigerian Yoruba than would be expected in the absence of natural selection.\nFour such loci were previously shown to be genome-wide significant and likely\nto be affected by selection, but we show that most of the 10 additional loci\nare likely to be false positives. Additionally, the most parsimonious\nexplanation for the loci that have significant evidence of unusual\ndifferentiation in frequency between Nigerians and Africans Americans is\nselection in Africa prior to their forced migration to the Americas.\n