Polygenic adaptation on height is overestimated due to uncorrected stratification in genome-wide association studies.

ABSTRACT: Genetic predictions of height differ among human populations and these differences have been interpreted as evidence of polygenic adaptation. These differences were first detected using SNPs genome-wide significantly associated with height, and shown to grow stronger when large numbers of sub-significant SNPs were included, leading to excitement about the prospect of analyzing large fractions of the genome to detect polygenic adaptation for multiple traits. Previous studies of height have been based on SNP effect size measurements in the GIANT Consortium meta-analysis. Here we repeat the analyses in the UK Biobank, a much more homogeneously designed study. We show that polygenic adaptation signals based on large numbers of SNPs below genome-wide significance are extremely sensitive to bias

SUBMITTER: Sohail M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6428571 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature