Measures of Autozygosity in Decline: Globalization, Urbanization, and Its Implications for Medical Genetics

Michael A Nalls, Javier Simon-Sanchez, J Raphael Gibbs, Coro Paisan-Ruiz, Jose Tomas Bras, Toshiko Tanaka, Mar Matarin, Sonja Scholz, Charles Weitz, Tamara B Harris, Luigi Ferrucci, John Hardy and Andrew B Singleton

PLOS Genetics, 2009, vol. 5, issue 3, 1-7

Abstract: This research investigates the influence of demographic factors on human genetic sub-structure. In our discovery cohort, we show significant demographic trends for decreasing autozygosity associated with population variation in chronological age. Autozygosity, the genomic signature of consanguinity, is identifiable on a genome-wide level as extended tracts of homozygosity. We identified an average of 28.6 tracts of extended homozygosity greater than 1 Mb in length in a representative population of 809 unrelated North Americans of European descent ranging in chronological age from 19–99 years old. These homozygous tracts made up a population average of 42 Mb of the genome corresponding to 1.6% of the entire genome, with each homozygous tract an average of 1.5 Mb in length. Runs of homozygosity are steadily decreasing in size and frequency as time progresses (linear regression, p

Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pgen00:1000415

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000415

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