Joint Ancestry and Association Testing in Admixed Individuals

For samples of admixed individuals, it is possible to test for both ancestry effects via admixture mapping and genotype effects via association mapping. Here, we describe a joint test called BMIX that combines admixture and association statistics at single markers. We first perform high-density admixture mapping using local ancestry. We then perform association mapping using stratified regression, wherein for each marker genotypes are stratified by local ancestry. In both stages, we use generalized linear models, providing the advantage that the joint test can be used with any phenotype distribution with an appropriate link function. To define the alternative densities for admixture mapping and association mapping, we describe a method based on autocorrelation to empirically estimate the testing burdens of admixture mapping and association mapping. We then describe a joint test that uses the posterior probabilities from admixture mapping as prior probabilities for association mapping, capitalizing on the reduced testing burden of admixture mapping relative to association mapping. By simulation, we show that BMIX is potentially orders-of-magnitude more powerful than the MIX score, which is currently the most powerful frequentist joint test. We illustrate the gain in power through analysis of fasting plasma glucose among 922 unrelated, non-diabetic, admixed African Americans from the Howard University Family Study. We detected loci at 1q24 and 6q26 as genome-wide significant via admixture mapping; both loci have been independently reported from linkage analysis. Using the association data, we resolved the 1q24 signal into two regions. One region, upstream of the gene FAM78B, contains three binding sites for the transcription factor PPARG and two binding sites for HNF1A, both previously implicated in the pathology of type 2 diabetes. The fact that both loci showed ancestry effects may provide novel insight into the genetic architecture of fasting plasma glucose in individuals of African ancestry. Author Summary: Most genome-wide association studies performed to date have focused on individuals with European ancestry. Admixed African Americans tend to have disproportionately higher risk for many common, complex diseases. Disease or trait mapping in admixed individuals can benefit from joint analysis of ancestry and genotype effects. We developed a joint test that is more powerful than either admixture mapping of ancestry effects or association mapping of genotype effects performed separately. Our joint test fully capitalizes on the reduced testing burden of admixture mapping relative to association mapping. The test is based on generalized linear models and can be performed using standard statistical software. We illustrate the increased power of the joint test by detecting two loci for fasting plasma glucose in a sample of unrelated African American individuals, neither of which loci was detected as significant by traditional association analysis.