Large-scale admixture mapping in the All of Us Research Program improves the characterization of cross-population phenotypic differences

Admixed individuals have largely been understudied in medical research due to their complex genetic ancestries. However, the consideration of admixture can help identify ancestry-enriched genetic associations, delineating some of the genetic underpinnings of cross-population phenotypic variation.

To this end, we performed local ancestry inference within the All of Us Research Program to identify individuals with recent admixture between African (AFR) and European (EUR) populations (N=48,921). We identified evidence of local AFR ancestry enrichment at the HLA locus, suggestive of putative selection since admixture. Furthermore, we performed the largest admixture mapping (ADM) efforts in AFR-EUR Admixed individuals for 22 traits, identifying 71 associations between inferred local AFR ancestries and a trait. Variants from published GWAS could only account for 18 (25%) of the ADM associations, highlighting novel loci where ancestral haplotypes explained some phenotypic variation. Previous studies likely have not identified these loci due to the low availability of high-powered GWAS in populations genetically similar to AFR. One such loci was 9q21.33, associated with 1.4-fold risk of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) for carriers of inferred local AFR ancestries at the region. This locus contains the gene SLC28A3 , which has previously been linked to kidney function but has never been associated with cross-population ESKD prevalence differences.

Together, our results expand upon the existing literature on phenotypic differences between populations, highlighting loci where genetic ancestries play a critical role in the genetic architecture of disease.