The need to diversify genomic studies: Insights from Andean highlanders and Amazonians.

More globally diverse perspectives are needed in genomic studies and precision medicine practices on non-Europeans. Here, we illustrate this by discussing the distribution of clinically actionable genetic variants involved in drug response in Andean highlanders and Amazonians, considering their environment, history, genetic structure, and historical biases in the perception of biological diversity of Native Americans.

Rare genetic variants of NLRP12 in Admixed Latino-American Children with SARS-CoV-2-related Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome.

Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) is a rare, potentially fatal complication of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Genetic defects in inflammation-related pathways have been linked to MIS-C, but additional research is needed, especially in diverse ethnic groups. The present study aimed to identify genetic variants underlying MIS-C in Brazilian patients. Whole-exome sequencing was performed, focusing on genes involved in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2. Functional assays assessed the impact of selected variants on NF-κB signaling. Nine rare, potentially deleterious variants were found in eight of 21 patients, located in IL17RC, IFNA10, or NLRP12 genes. Unlike the wild-type NLRP12 protein, which inhibits NF-κB activation in HEK 293T cells, the mutant NLRP12 proteins have significantly reduced inhibitory properties. In conclusion, our results indicate that rare autosomal variants in immune-related genes may underlie MIS-C, highlighting the potential role of NLRP12 in its predisposition. These findings provide new insights for the appropriate management of MIS-C.

X-Chromosome Association Study in Latin American Cohorts Identifies New Loci in Parkinson's Disease.

BACKGROUND: Sex differences in Parkinson's disease (PD) risk are well-known. However, the role of sex chromosomes in the development and progression of PD is still unclear. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to perform the first X-chromosome-wide association study for PD risk in a Latin American cohort. METHODS: We used data from three admixed cohorts: (1) Latin American Research consortium on the Genetics of Parkinson's Disease (n = 1504) as discover cohort, and (2) Latino cohort from International Parkinson Disease Genomics Consortium (n = 155) and (3) Bambui Aging cohort (n = 1442) as replication cohorts. We also developed an X-chromosome framework specifically designed for admixed populations. RESULTS: We identified eight linkage disequilibrium regions associated with PD. We replicated one of these regions (top variant rs525496; discovery odds ratio [95% confidence interval]: 0.60 [0.478-0.77], P = 3.13 × 10-5 replication odds ratio: 0.60 [0.37-0.98], P = 0.04). rs5525496 is associated with multiple expression quantitative trait loci in brain and non-brain tissues, including RAB9B, H2BFM, TSMB15B, and GLRA4, but colocalization analysis suggests that rs5525496 may not mediate risk by expression of these genes. We also replicated a previous X-chromosome-wide association study finding (rs28602900), showing that this variant is associated with PD in non-European populations. CONCLUSIONS: Our results reinforce the importance of including X-chromosome and diverse populations in genetic studies. © 2023 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Global and local ancestry modulate APOE association with Alzheimer's neuropathology and cognitive outcomes in an admixed sample.

Dementia is more prevalent in Blacks than in Whites, likely due to a combination of environmental and biological factors. Paradoxically, clinical studies suggest an attenuation of APOE ε4 risk of dementia in African ancestry (AFR), but a dearth of neuropathological data preclude the interpretation of the biological factors underlying these findings, including the association between APOE ε4 risk and Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, the most frequent cause of dementia. We investigated the interaction between African ancestry, AD-related neuropathology, APOE genotype, and functional cognition in a postmortem sample of 400 individuals with a range of AD pathology severity and lack of comorbid neuropathology from a cohort of community-dwelling, admixed Brazilians. Increasing proportions of African ancestry (AFR) correlated with a lower burden of neuritic plaques (NP). However, for individuals with a severe burden of NP and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), AFR proportion was associated with worse Clinical Dementia Rating sum of boxes (CDR-SOB). Among APOE ε4 carriers, the association between AFR proportion and CDR-SOB disappeared. APOE local ancestry inference of a subset of 309 individuals revealed that, in APOE ε4 noncarriers, non-European APOE background correlated with lower NP burden and, also, worse cognitive outcomes than European APOE when adjusting by NP burden. Finally, APOE ε4 was associated with worse AD neuropathological burden only in a European APOE background. APOE genotype and its association with AD neuropathology and clinical pattern are highly influenced by ancestry, with AFR associated with lower NP burden and attenuated APOE ε4 risk compared to European ancestry.

The genetic structure and adaptation of Andean highlanders and Amazonians are influenced by the interplay between geography and culture.

Western South America was one of the worldwide cradles of civilization. The well-known Inca Empire was the tip of the iceberg of an evolutionary process that started 11,000 to 14,000 years ago. Genetic data from 18 Peruvian populations reveal the following: 1) The between-population homogenization of the central southern Andes and its differentiation with respect to Amazonian populations of similar latitudes do not extend northward. Instead, longitudinal gene flow between the northern coast of Peru, Andes, and Amazonia accompanied cultural and socioeconomic interactions revealed by archeology. This pattern recapitulates the environmental and cultural differentiation between the fertile north, where altitudes are lower, and the arid south, where the Andes are higher, acting as a genetic barrier between the sharply different environments of the Andes and Amazonia. 2) The genetic homogenization between the populations of the arid Andes is not only due to migrations during the Inca Empire or the subsequent colonial period. It started at least during the earlier expansion of the Wari Empire (600 to 1,000 years before present). 3) This demographic history allowed for cases of positive natural selection in the high and arid Andes vs. the low Amazon tropical forest: in the Andes, a putative enhancer in HAND2-AS1 (heart and neural crest derivatives expressed 2 antisense RNA1, a noncoding gene related to cardiovascular function) and rs269868-C/Ser1067 in DUOX2 (dual oxidase 2, related to thyroid function and innate immunity) genes and, in the Amazon, the gene encoding for the CD45 protein, essential for antigen recognition by T and B lymphocytes in viral-host interaction.

Genetic signatures of gene flow and malaria-driven natural selection in sub-Saharan populations of the "endemic Burkitt Lymphoma belt".

Populations in sub-Saharan Africa have historically been exposed to intense selection from chronic infection with falciparum malaria. Interestingly, populations with the highest malaria intensity can be identified by the increased occurrence of endemic Burkitt Lymphoma (eBL), a pediatric cancer that affects populations with intense malaria exposure, in the so called "eBL belt" in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the effects of intense malaria exposure and sub-Saharan populations' genetic histories remain poorly explored. To determine if historical migrations and intense malaria exposure have shaped the genetic composition of the eBL belt populations, we genotyped ~4.3 million SNPs in 1,708 individuals from Ghana and Northern Uganda, located on opposite sides of eBL belt and with ≥ 7 months/year of intense malaria exposure and published evidence of high incidence of BL. Among 35 Ghanaian tribes, we showed a predominantly West-Central African ancestry and genomic footprints of gene flow from Gambian and East African populations. In Uganda, the North West population showed a predominantly Nilotic ancestry, and the North Central population was a mixture of Nilotic and Southern Bantu ancestry, while the Southwest Ugandan population showed a predominant Southern Bantu ancestry. Our results support the hypothesis of diverse ancestral origins of the Ugandan, Kenyan and Tanzanian Great Lakes African populations, reflecting a confluence of Nilotic, Cushitic and Bantu migrations in the last 3000 years. Natural selection analyses suggest, for the first time, a strong positive selection signal in the ATP2B4 gene (rs10900588) in Northern Ugandan populations. These findings provide important baseline genomic data to facilitate disease association studies, including of eBL, in eBL belt populations.

GSTT1/GSTM1 Genotype and Anti-Tuberculosis Drug-Induced Hepatotoxicity in Peruvian Patients.

In Peru, 24,581 people were diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) in 2020. Although TB treatments are effective, 3.4-13% are associated with significant adverse drug reactions (ADRs), with drug-induced liver injury (DILI) considered the most predominant. Among the first-line antituberculosis drugs, isoniazid (INH) is the main drug responsible for the appearance of DILI. In the liver, INH is metabolized by the enzymes N-acetyltransferase-2 (NAT2), cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1), and glutathione S-transferase (GST) with two isoforms, GSTT1 and GSTM1. Based on previous studies, we hypothesized that interactions between the GSTT1 and GSTM1 null genotypes induce DILI in TB patients. In this cross-sectional study of 377 participants who completed their anti-TB treatment, we genotyped by revealing the presence or absence of 215- and 480-bp bands of GSTM1 and GSTT1, respectively. We found that the prevalence of the GSTM1 genotype was 52.79% and 47.21% for presence and null, respectively, and for GSTT1 it was 69.76% and 30.24% for presence and null, respectively. Neither genotype was prevalent in the patients who developed DILI (n = 16). We did not confirm our hypothesis; however, we found that the combination of GSTM1 present genotype, GSTT1 null genotype, fast NAT2 acetylators, and CYP2E1 c1/c1 genotype had a significant risk for the development of ADR (OR 11; p = 0.017; 95% CI: (0.54-186.35)). We propose that the presence of the GSTM1 present genotype, GSTT1 null genotype, fast NAT2 acetylators, and CYP2E1 c1/c1 genotype in the Peruvian population could be considered a risk factor for the development of ADR due to therapeutic drug intake.

Clinical genomics and precision medicine.

Precision Medicine emerges from the genomic paradigm of health and disease. For precise molecular diagnoses of genetic diseases, we must analyze the Whole Exome (WES) or the Whole Genome (WGS). By not needing exon capture, WGS is more powerful to detect single nucleotide variants and copy number variants. In healthy individuals, we can observe monogenic highly penetrant variants, which may be causally responsible for diseases, and also susceptibility variants, associated with common polygenic diseases. But there is the major problem of penetrance. Thus, there is the question of whether it is worthwhile to perform WGS in all healthy individuals as a step towards Precision Medicine. The genetic architecture of disease is consistent with the fact that they are all polygenic. Moreover, ancestry adds another layer of complexity. We are now capable of obtaining Polygenic Risk Scores for all complex diseases using only data from new generation sequencing. Yet, review of available evidence does not at present favor the idea that WGS analyses are sufficiently developed to allow reliable predictions of the risk components for monogenic and polygenic hereditary diseases in healthy individuals. Probably, it is still better for WGS to remain reserved for the diagnosis of pathogenic variants of Mendelian diseases.

Origins, Admixture Dynamics, and Homogenization of the African Gene Pool in the Americas.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade transported more than 9 million Africans to the Americas between the early 16th and the mid-19th centuries. We performed a genome-wide analysis using 6,267 individuals from 25 populations to infer how different African groups contributed to North-, South-American, and Caribbean populations, in the context of geographic and geopolitical factors, and compared genetic data with demographic history records of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. We observed that West-Central Africa and Western Africa-associated ancestry clusters are more prevalent in northern latitudes of the Americas, whereas the South/East Africa-associated ancestry cluster is more prevalent in southern latitudes of the Americas. This pattern results from geographic and geopolitical factors leading to population differentiation. However, there is a substantial decrease in the between-population differentiation of the African gene pool within the Americas, when compared with the regions of origin from Africa, underscoring the importance of historical factors favoring admixture between individuals with different African origins in the New World. This between-population homogenization in the Americas is consistent with the excess of West-Central Africa ancestry (the most prevalent in the Americas) in the United States and Southeast-Brazil, with respect to historical-demography expectations. We also inferred that in most of the Americas, intercontinental admixture intensification occurred between 1750 and 1850, which correlates strongly with the peak of arrivals from Africa. This study contributes with a population genetics perspective to the ongoing social, cultural, and political debate regarding ancestry, admixture, and the mestizaje process in the Americas.

Biased pathogenic assertions of loss of function variants challenge molecular diagnosis of admixed individuals.

Diagnosis of individuals affected by monogenic disorders was significantly improved by next-generation sequencing targeting clinically relevant genes. Whole exomes yield a large number of variants that require several filtering steps, prioritization, and pathogenicity classification. Among the criteria recommended by ACMG, those that rely on population databases critically affect analyses of individuals with underrepresented ancestries. Population-specific allelic frequencies need consideration when characterizing potential deleteriousness of variants. An orthogonal input for classification is annotation of variants previously classified as pathogenic as a criterion that provide supporting evidence widely sourced at ClinVar. We used a whole-genome dataset from a census-based cohort of 1,171 elderly individuals from São Paulo, Brazil, highly admixed, and unaffected by severe monogenic disorders, to investigate if pathogenic assertions in ClinVar are enriched with higher proportions of European ancestry, indicating bias. Potential loss of function (pLOF) variants were filtered from 4,250 genes associated with Mendelian disorders and annotated with ClinVar assertions. Over 1,800 single nucleotide pLOF variants were included, 381 had non-benign assertions. Among carriers (N = 463), average European ancestry was significantly higher than noncarriers (N = 708; p = .011). pLOFs in genomic contexts of non-European local ancestries were nearly three times less likely to have any ClinVar entry (OR = 0.353; p <.0001). Independent pathogenicity assertions are useful for variant classification in molecular diagnosis. However, European overrepresentation of assertions can promote distortions when classifying variants in non-European individuals, even in admixed samples with a relatively high proportion of European ancestry. The investigation and deposit of clinically relevant findings of diverse populations is fundamental improve this scenario.

EPIGEN-Brazil Initiative resources: a Latin American imputation panel and the Scientific Workflow.

EPIGEN-Brazil is one of the largest Latin American initiatives at the interface of human genomics, public health, and computational biology. Here, we present two resources to address two challenges to the global dissemination of precision medicine and the development of the bioinformatics know-how to support it. To address the underrepresentation of non-European individuals in human genome diversity studies, we present the EPIGEN-5M+1KGP imputation panel-the fusion of the public 1000 Genomes Project (1KGP) Phase 3 imputation panel with haplotypes derived from the EPIGEN-5M data set (a product of the genotyping of 4.3 million SNPs in 265 admixed individuals from the EPIGEN-Brazil Initiative). When we imputed a target SNPs data set (6487 admixed individuals genotyped for 2.2 million SNPs from the EPIGEN-Brazil project) with the EPIGEN-5M+1KGP panel, we gained 140,452 more SNPs in total than when using the 1KGP Phase 3 panel alone and 788,873 additional high confidence SNPs (info score ≥ 0.8). Thus, the major effect of the inclusion of the EPIGEN-5M data set in this new imputation panel is not only to gain more SNPs but also to improve the quality of imputation. To address the lack of transparency and reproducibility of bioinformatics protocols, we present a conceptual Scientific Workflow in the form of a website that models the scientific process (by including publications, flowcharts, masterscripts, documents, and bioinformatics protocols), making it accessible and interactive. Its applicability is shown in the context of the development of our EPIGEN-5M+1KGP imputation panel. The Scientific Workflow also serves as a repository of bioinformatics resources.

Admixture/fine-mapping in Brazilians reveals a West African associated potential regulatory variant (rs114066381) with a strong female-specific effect on body mass and fat mass indexes.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Admixed populations are a resource to study the global genetic architecture of complex phenotypes, which is critical, considering that non-European populations are severely underrepresented in genomic studies. Here, we study the genetic architecture of BMI in children, young adults, and elderly individuals from the admixed population of Brazil. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Leveraging admixture in Brazilians, whose chromosomes are mosaics of fragments of Native American, European, and African origins, we used genome-wide data to perform admixture mapping/fine-mapping of body mass index (BMI) in three Brazilian population-based cohorts from Northeast (Salvador), Southeast (Bambuí), and South (Pelotas). RESULTS: We found significant associations with African-associated alleles in children from Salvador (PALD1 and ZMIZ1 genes), and in young adults from Pelotas (NOD2 and MTUS2 genes). More importantly, in Pelotas, rs114066381, mapped in a potential regulatory region, is significantly associated only in females (p = 2.76e-06). This variant is rare in Europeans but with frequencies of ~3% in West Africa and has a strong female-specific effect (95% CI: 2.32-5.65 kg/m2 per each A allele). We confirmed this sex-specific association and replicated its strong effect for an adjusted fat mass index in the same Pelotas cohort, and for BMI in another Brazilian cohort from São Paulo (Southeast Brazil). A meta-analysis confirmed the significant association. Remarkably, we observed that while the frequency of rs114066381-A allele ranges from 0.8 to 2.1% in the studied populations, it attains ~9% among women with morbid obesity from Pelotas, São Paulo, and Bambuí. The effect size of rs114066381 is at least five times higher than the FTO SNPs rs9939609 and rs1558902, already emblematic for their high effects. CONCLUSIONS: We identified six candidate SNPs associated with BMI. rs114066381 stands out for its high effect that was replicated and its high frequency in women with morbid obesity. We demonstrate how admixed populations are a source of new relevant phenotype-associated genetic variants.

Evolutionary genomic dynamics of Peruvians before, during, and after the Inca Empire.

Native Americans from the Amazon, Andes, and coastal geographic regions of South America have a rich cultural heritage but are genetically understudied, therefore leading to gaps in our knowledge of their genomic architecture and demographic history. In this study, we sequence 150 genomes to high coverage combined with an additional 130 genotype array samples from Native American and mestizo populations in Peru. The majority of our samples possess greater than 90% Native American ancestry, which makes this the most extensive Native American sequencing project to date. Demographic modeling reveals that the peopling of Peru began ∼12,000 y ago, consistent with the hypothesis of the rapid peopling of the Americas and Peruvian archeological data. We find that the Native American populations possess distinct ancestral divisions, whereas the mestizo groups were admixtures of multiple Native American communities that occurred before and during the Inca Empire and Spanish rule. In addition, the mestizo communities also show Spanish introgression largely following Peruvian Independence, nearly 300 y after Spain conquered Peru. Further, we estimate migration events between Peruvian populations from all three geographic regions with the majority of between-region migration moving from the high Andes to the low-altitude Amazon and coast. As such, we present a detailed model of the evolutionary dynamics which impacted the genomes of modern-day Peruvians and a Native American ancestry dataset that will serve as a beneficial resource to addressing the underrepresentation of Native American ancestry in sequencing studies.

Human-SARS-CoV-2 interactome and human genetic diversity: TMPRSS2-rs2070788, associated with severe influenza, and its population genetics caveats in Native Americans.

For human/SARS-CoV-2 interactome genes ACE2, TMPRSS2 and BSG, there is a convincing evidence of association in Asians with influenza-induced SARS for TMPRSS2-rs2070788, tag-SNP of the eQTL rs383510. This case illustrates the importance of population genetics and of sequencing data in the design of genetic association studies in different human populations: the high linkage disequilibrium (LD) between rs2070788 and rs383510 is Asian-specific. Leveraging on a combination of genotyping and sequencing data for Native Americans (neglected in genetic studies), we show that while their frequencies of the Asian tag-SNP rs2070788 is, surprisingly, the highest worldwide, it is not in LD with the eQTL rs383510, that therefore, should be directly genotyped in genetic association studies of SARS in populations with Native American ancestry.

Genetic admixture in Brazil.

We review studies from our laboratories using different molecular tools to characterize the Amerindian, European and African ancestry of Brazilians. Initially we used uniparental DNA markers to investigate the contribution of distinct Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA lineages to present-day populations. High levels of genetic admixture and strong directional mating between European males and Amerindian and African females were unraveled. We next analyzed different types of biparental autosomal polymorphisms. Especially useful was a set of 40 insertion-deletion polymorphisms (indels) that when studied worldwide proved exquisitely sensitive in discriminating between Amerindians, Europeans and Sub-Saharan Africans. When applied to the study of Brazilians these markers confirmed extensive genomic admixture. We then studied ancestry differences in different regions by statistically controlling them to eliminate color considerations. The European ancestry was predominant in all regions studied, with proportions ranging from 60.6% in the Northeast to 77.7% in the South. We propose that the immigration of 6 million Europeans to Brazil in the 19th and 20th centuries is in large part responsible for dissipating previous ancestry dissimilarities that reflected region-specific population histories. Brazilians should be assessed individually, as 210 million human beings, and not as members of specific regions or color groups.

Genetic structure of pharmacogenetic biomarkers in Brazil inferred from a systematic review and population-based cohorts: a RIBEF/EPIGEN-Brazil initiative.

We present allele frequencies involving 39 pharmacogenetic biomarkers studied in Brazil, and their distribution on self-reported race/color categories that: (1) involve a mix of perceptions about ancestry, morphological traits, and cultural/identity issues, being social constructs pervasively used in Brazilian society and medical studies; (2) are associated with disparities in access to health services, as well as in their representation in genetic studies, and (3), as we report here, explain a larger portion of the variance of pharmaco-allele frequencies than geography. We integrated a systematic review of studies on healthy volunteers (years 1968-2017) and the analysis of allele frequencies on three population-based cohorts from northeast, southeast, and south, the most populated regions of Brazil. Cross-validation of results from these both approaches suggest that, despite methodological heterogeneity of the 120 studies conducted on 51,747 healthy volunteers, allele frequencies estimates from systematic review are reliable. We report differences in allele frequencies between color categories that persist despite the homogenizing effect of >500 years of admixture. Among clinically relevant variants: CYP2C9*2 (null), CYP3A5*3 (defective), SLCO1B1-rs4149056(C), and VKORC1-rs9923231(A) are more frequent in Whites than in Blacks. Brazilian Native Americans show lower frequencies of CYP2C9*2, CYP2C19*17 (increased activity), and higher of SLCO1B1-rs4149056(C) than other Brazilian populations. We present the most current and informative database of pharmaco-allele frequencies in Brazilian healthy volunteers.

Origin and dynamics of admixture in Brazilians and its effect on the pattern of deleterious mutations.

While South Americans are underrepresented in human genomic diversity studies, Brazil has been a classical model for population genetics studies on admixture. We present the results of the EPIGEN Brazil Initiative, the most comprehensive up-to-date genomic analysis of any Latin-American population. A population-based genome-wide analysis of 6,487 individuals was performed in the context of worldwide genomic diversity to elucidate how ancestry, kinship, and inbreeding interact in three populations with different histories from the Northeast (African ancestry: 50%), Southeast, and South (both with European ancestry >70%) of Brazil. We showed that ancestry-positive assortative mating permeated Brazilian history. We traced European ancestry in the Southeast/South to a wider European/Middle Eastern region with respect to the Northeast, where ancestry seems restricted to Iberia. By developing an approximate Bayesian computation framework, we infer more recent European immigration to the Southeast/South than to the Northeast. Also, the observed low Native-American ancestry (6-8%) was mostly introduced in different regions of Brazil soon after the European Conquest. We broadened our understanding of the African diaspora, the major destination of which was Brazil, by revealing that Brazilians display two within-Africa ancestry components: one associated with non-Bantu/western Africans (more evident in the Northeast and African Americans) and one associated with Bantu/eastern Africans (more present in the Southeast/South). Furthermore, the whole-genome analysis of 30 individuals (42-fold deep coverage) shows that continental admixture rather than local post-Columbian history is the main and complex determinant of the individual amount of deleterious genotypes.

Understanding the Genomic Structure of Copy-Number Variation of the Low-Affinity Fcγ Receptor Region Allows Confirmation of the Association of FCGR3B Deletion with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Fcγ receptors are a family of cell-surface receptors that are expressed by a host of different innate and adaptive immune cells, and mediate inflammatory responses by binding the Fc portion of immunoglobulin G. In humans, five low-affinity receptors are encoded by the genes FCGR2A, FCGR2B, FCGR2C, FCGR3A, and FCGR3B, which are located in an 82.5-kb segmental tandem duplication on chromosome 1q23.3, which shows extensive copy-number variation (CNV). Deletions of FCGR3B have been suggested to increase the risk of inflammatory diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In this study, we identify the deletion breakpoints of FCGR3B deletion alleles in the UK population and endogamous native American population, and show that some but not all alleles are likely to be identical-by-descent. We also localize a duplication breakpoint, confirming that the mechanism of CNV generation is nonallelic homologous recombination, and identify several alleles with gene conversion events using fosmid sequencing data. We use information on the structure of the deletion alleles to distinguish FCGR3B deletions from FCGR3A deletions in whole-genome array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) data. Reanalysis of published aCGH data using this approach supports association of FCGR3B deletion with increased risk of RA in a large cohort of 1,982 cases and 3,271 controls (odds ratio 1.61, P = 2.9×10-3 ).

Integrating, summarizing and visualizing GWAS-hits and human diversity with DANCE (Disease-ANCEstry networks).

MOTIVATION: The 1000 Genomes Project (1KGP) and thousands of Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) performed during the last years have generated an enormous amount of information that needs to be integrated to better understand the genetic architecture of complex diseases in different populations. This integration is important in areas such as genetics, epidemiology, anthropology, as well as admixture mapping design and GWAS-replications. Network-based approaches that explore the genetic bases of human diseases and traits have not yet incorporated information on genetic diversity among human populations. RESULTS: We propose Disease-ANCEstry networks (DANCE), a graph-based web tool that allows to integrate and visualize information on human complex phenotypes and their GWAS-hits, as well as their risk allele frequencies in different populations. DANCE provides an interactive way to explore the human SNP-Disease Network and its projection, a Disease-Disease Network. With these functionalities, DANCE fills a gap in our ability to handle and understand the knowledge generated by GWAS and 1KGP. We provide a number of case studies that show how DANCE can be used to explore the relationships between human complex diseases, their genetic bases and variability in different human populations. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: DANCE is freely available at http://ldgh.com.br/dance/ We recommend using DANCE with Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Chrome or Internet Explorer (v9 or v10). CONTACT: gilderlanio@gmail.com or maira.r.rodrigues@gmail.com SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

A tale of agriculturalists and hunter-gatherers: Exploring the thrifty genotype hypothesis in native South Americans.

OBJECTIVES: To determine genetic differences between agriculturalist and hunter-gatherer southern Native American populations for selected metabolism-related markers and to test whether Neel's thrifty genotype hypothesis (TGH) could explain the genetic patterns observed in these populations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 375 Native South American individuals from 17 populations were genotyped using six markers (APOE rs429358 and rs7412; APOA2 rs5082; CD36 rs3211883; TCF7L2 rs11196205; and IGF2BP2 rs11705701). Additionally, APOE genotypes from 39 individuals were obtained from the literature. AMOVA, main effects, and gene-gene interaction tests were performed. RESULTS: We observed differences in allele distribution patterns between agriculturalists and hunter-gatherers for some markers. For instance, between-groups component of genetic variance (FCT ) for APOE rs429358 showed strong differences in allelic distributions between hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists (p = 0.00196). Gene-gene interaction analysis indicated that the APOE E4/CD36 TT and APOE E4/IGF2BP2 A carrier combinations occur at a higher frequency in hunter-gatherers, but this combination is not replicated in archaic (Neanderthal and Denisovan) and ancient (Anzick, Saqqaq, Ust-Ishim, Mal'ta) hunter-gatherer individuals. DISCUSSION: A complex scenario explains the observed frequencies of the tested markers in hunter-gatherers. Different factors, such as pleotropic alleles, rainforest selective pressures, and population dynamics, may be collectively shaping the observed genetic patterns. We conclude that although TGH seems a plausible hypothesis to explain part of the data, other factors may be important in our tested populations.