Genes and Health in Der News

In all cases, emphasis added.

But, but, but….I thought we were all exactly the same:

The inclusion of diverse ancestries in the present meta-analyses allowed us to identify two loci that would have been missed in meta-analyses of European-ancestry individuals alone. In particular, the lead variant (rs141588480) in the SNTA1 locus is only polymorphic in African and Hispanic ancestries, and the lead variant (rs190748049) in the CNTNAP2 locus is four times more frequent in African-ancestry than in European-ancestry. Our findings highlight the importance of multi-ancestry investigations of gene-lifestyle interactions to identify novel loci.

Comparing admixed Latin Americans to the Finnish population isolate: 

Most population isolates examined to date were founded from a single ancestral population. Consequently, there is limited knowledge about the demographic history of admixed population isolates. Here we investigate genomic diversity of recently admixed population isolates from Costa Rica and Colombia and compare their diversity to a benchmark population isolate, the Finnish. These Latin American isolates originated during the 16th century from admixture between a few hundred European males and Amerindian females, with a limited contribution from African founders. We examine whole-genome sequence data from 449 individuals, ascertained as families to build mutigenerational pedigrees, with a mean sequencing depth of coverage of approximately 36×. We find that Latin American isolates have increased genetic diversity relative to the Finnish. However, there is an increase in the amount of identity by descent (IBD) segments in the Latin American isolates relative to the Finnish. The increase in IBD segments is likely a consequence of a very recent and severe population bottleneck during the founding of the admixed population isolates. Furthermore, the proportion of the genome that falls within a long run of homozygosity (ROH) in Costa Rican and Colombian individuals is significantly greater than that in the Finnish, suggesting more recent consanguinity in the Latin American isolates relative to that seen in the Finnish. Lastly, we find that recent consanguinity increased the number of deleterious variants found in the homozygous state, which is relevant if deleterious variants are recessive. Our study suggests that there is no single genetic signature of a population isolate.

Alon Ziv weeps.  In this case, the more admixed populations, with their bottlenecks and consanguinity, have significant stretches of homozygosity and more deleterious alleles than the more isolated Finns.  So, "increased genetic diversity" does not necessarily equate to fewer deleterious alleles.  And all of this doesn't even consider outbreeding depression from breaking up coadapted gene complexes.

Alcohol consumption, SNPs, and ancestry:

Alcohol consumption is a complex trait determined by both genetic and environmental factors, and is correlated with the risk of alcohol use disorders. Although a small number of genetic loci have been reported to be associated with variation in alcohol consumption, genetic factors are estimated to explain about half of the variance in alcohol consumption, suggesting that additional loci remain to be discovered. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of alcohol consumption in the large Genetic Epidemiology Research in Adult Health and Aging (GERA) cohort, in four race/ethnicity groups: non-Hispanic whites, Hispanic/Latinos, East Asians and African Americans. We examined two statistically independent phenotypes reflecting subjects' alcohol consumption during the past year, based on self-reported information: any alcohol intake (drinker/non-drinker status) and the regular quantity of drinks consumed per week (drinks/week) among drinkers. We assessed these two alcohol consumption phenotypes in each race/ethnicity group, and in a combined trans-ethnic meta-analysis comprising a total of 86 627 individuals. We observed the strongest association between the previously reported single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs671 in ALDH2 and alcohol drinker status (odd ratio (OR)=0.40, P=2.28 × 10-72) in East Asians, and also an effect on drinks/week (beta=-0.17, P=5.42 × 10-4) in the same group. We also observed a genome-wide significant association in non-Hispanic whites between the previously reported SNP rs1229984 in ADH1B and both alcohol consumption phenotypes (OR=0.79, P=2.47 × 10-20 for drinker status and beta=-0.19, P=1.91 × 10-35 for drinks/week), which replicated in Hispanic/Latinos (OR=0.72, P=4.35 × 10-7 and beta=-0.21, P=2.58 × 10-6, respectively). Although prior studies reported effects of ADH1B and ALDH2 on lifetime measures, such as risk of alcohol dependence, our study adds further evidence of the effect of the same genes on a cross-sectional measure of average drinking. Our trans-ethnic meta-analysis confirmed recent findings implicating the KLB and GCKR loci in alcohol consumption, with strongest associations observed for rs7686419 (beta=-0.04, P=3.41 × 10-10 for drinks/week and OR=0.96, P=4.08 × 10-5 for drinker status), and rs4665985 (beta=0.04, P=2.26 × 10-8 for drinks/week and OR=1.04, P=5 × 10-4 for drinker status), respectively. Finally, we also obtained confirmatory results extending previous findings implicating AUTS2, SGOL1 and SERPINC1 genes in alcohol consumption traits in non-Hispanic whites.

Jews and Europeans have, apparently, been enemies from the very beginning.

As members of Der Movement agonize over those dastardly “Big Pharma products” violating our precious bodily fluids via injection (the horrors of vaccination!  Louis Pasteur the cryptic Jew!  Jew doctors!), the real threat to White health is that that the average White has a BMI rivalling that of a black hole singularity. That is why diseases like Type 2 Diabetes are increasing in frequency, including among the young. But, hey, those needles are real scary and all.  Big Pharma!  Big Pharma!  Pass another Big Mac, please.