Are common disease susceptibility alleles the same in outbred and founder populations?
Date
2004-07Author
Newman, Dina
Hoffjan, Sabine
Bourgain, Catherine
Abney, Mark
Nicolae, Raluca
Profits, Elle
Grow, Michael
Walker, Karen
Steiner, Lori
Parry, Rodney
Reynolds, Rebecca
McPeek, Mary
Cheng, Suzanne
Ober, Carole
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Founder populations have been the subjects of complex disease studies because of their decreased genetic heterogeneity, increased linkage disequilibrium and more homogeneous environmental exposures. However, it is possible that disease alleles identified in founder populations may not contribute significantly to susceptibility in outbred populations. In this study we examine the Hutterites, a founder population of European descent, for 103 polymorphisms in 66 genes that are candidates for cardiovascular or inflammatory diseases. We compare the frequencies of alleles at these loci in the Hutterites to their frequencies in outbred European-American populations and test for associations with cardiovascular disease-associated phenotypes in the Hutterites. We show that alleles at these loci are found at similar frequencies in the Hutterites and in outbred populations. In addition, we report associations between 39 alleles or haplotypes and cardiovascular disease phenotypes (P<0.05), with five loci remaining significant after adjusting for multiple comparisons. These data indicate that this founder population is informative and offers considerable advantages for genetic studies of common complex diseases.