Origin and dynamics of admixture in Brazilians and its effect on the pattern of deleterious mutations
Abstract
The EPIGEN Brazil Project is the largest Latin-American initiative to study the genomic diversity of admixed populations and its effect on phenotypes. We studied 6,487 Brazilians from three population-based cohorts with different geographic and demographic backgrounds. We identified ancestry components of these populations at a previously unmatched geographic resolution. We broadened our understanding of the African diaspora, the principal destination of which was Brazil, by revealing an African ancestry component that likely derives from the slave trade from Bantu/eastern African populations. In the context of the current debate about how the pattern of deleterious mutations varies between Africans and Europeans, we use whole-genome data to show that continental admixture is the main and complex determinant of the amount of deleterious genotypes in admixed individuals.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- July 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1504447112
- Bibcode:
- 2015PNAS..112.8696K