Year: 2023
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Latin America continues to be severely underrepresented in genomics research, and fine-scale genetic histories and complex trait architectures remain hidden owing to insufficient data 1 . To fill this gap, the Mexican Biobank project genotyped 6,057 individuals from 898 rural and urban localities across all 32 states in Mexico at a resolution of 1.8 million genome-wide markers with linked complex trait and disease information creating a valuable nationwide genotype–phenotype database. Here, using ancestry deconvolution and inference of identity-by-descent segments, we inferred ancestral population sizes across Mesoamerican regions over time, unravelling Indigenous, colonial and postcolonial demographic dynamics 2–6 . We observed variation in runs of homozygosity among genomic regions with different ancestries reflecting distinct demographic histories and, in turn, different distributions of rare deleterious variants. We conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for 22 complex traits and found that several traits are better predicted using the Mexican Biobank GWAS compared to the UK Biobank GWAS 7,8 . We identified genetic and environmental factors associating with trait variation, such as the length of the genome in runs of homozygosity as a predictor for body mass index, triglycerides, glucose and height. This study provides insights into the genetic histories of individuals in Mexico and dissects their complex trait architectures, both crucial for making precision and preventive medicine initiatives accessible worldwide.
Source: Nature
Authors: Mashaal Sohail, María J. Palma-Martínez, Amanda Y. Chong, Consuelo D. Quinto-Cortés, Carmina Barberena-Jonas, Santiago G. Medina-Muñoz, Aaron Ragsdale, Guadalupe Delgado-Sánchez, Luis Pablo Cruz-Hervert, Leticia Ferreyra-Reyes, Elizabeth Ferreira-Guerrero, Norma Mongua-Rodríguez, Sergio Canizales-Quintero, Andrés Jimenez-Kaufmann, Hortensia Moreno-Macías, Carlos A. Aguilar-Salinas, Kathryn Auckland, Adrián Cortés, Víctor Acuña-Alonzo, Christopher R. Gignoux, Genevieve L. Wojcik, Alexander G. Ioannidis, Selene L. Fernández-Valverde, Adrian V. S. Hill, María Teresa Tusié-Luna, Alexander J. Mentzer, John Novembre, Lourdes García-García, Andrés Moreno-Estrada
Institutions: University of Chicago, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, University of Colorado Anschutz, Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, UNSW Sydney, Jenner Institute
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $11,690
Funders: University of Chicago, Newton Fund, Research Councils UK, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Fondo de Cooperación Internacional en Ciencia y Tecnología, Secretaría de Salud, Instituto Nacional De Salud Pública, Global Challenges Research Fund, Medical Research Council, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, National Institute of General Medical Sciences
Awards: G4461657735, The Mexican Biobank Project: Building Capacity for Big Data Science in Medical Genomics in Admixed Populations, Extending Tools for Visualization of Geographic Structure in Population Genomic Data, G7373349122, G8083151929, Theory, Methods, and Resources for Understanding and Leveraging Spatial Variation in Population Genetic Data
OpenAlex ID: W4387541375