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Variation in dental morphology and inference of continental ancestry in admixed Latin Americans

Delgado, M; Ramírez, LM; Adhikari, K; Fuentes-Guajardo, M; Zanolli, C; Gonzalez-José, R; Canizales, S; ... Ruiz-Linares, A; + view all (2019) Variation in dental morphology and inference of continental ancestry in admixed Latin Americans. American Journal of Physical Anthropology , 168 (3) pp. 438-447. 10.1002/ajpa.23756. Green open access

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Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the variation in dental nonmetric traits and to evaluate the utility of this variation for inferring genetic ancestry proportions in a sample of admixed Latin Americans. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We characterized a sample from Colombia (N = 477) for 34 dental traits and obtained estimates of individual Native American, European, and African ancestry using genome-wide SNP data. We tested for correlation between dental traits, genetic ancestry, age, and sex. We carried out a biodistance analysis between the Colombian sample and reference continental population samples using the mean measure of divergence statistic calculated from dental trait frequencies. We evaluated the inference of genetic ancestry from dental traits using a regression approach (with 10-fold cross-validation) as well as by testing the correlation between estimates of ancestry obtained from genetic and dental data. RESULTS: Latin Americans show intermediate dental trait frequencies when compared to Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans. Significant correlations were observed for several dental traits, genetic ancestry, age, and sex. The biodistance analysis displayed a closer relationship of Colombians to Europeans than to Native Americans and Africans. Mean ancestry estimates obtained from the dental data are similar to the genetic estimates (Native American: 32% vs. 28%, European: 59% vs. 63%, and African: 9% vs. 9%, respectively). However, dental features provided low predictive power for genetic ancestry of individuals in both approaches tested (R2  < 5% for all genetic ancestries across methods). DISCUSSION: The frequency of dental traits in Latin Americans reflects their admixed Native American, European and African ancestry and can provide reasonable average estimates of genetic ancestry. However, the accuracy of individual genetic ancestry estimates is relatively low, probably influenced by the continental differentiation of dental traits, their genetic architecture, and the distribution of genetic ancestry in the individuals examined.

Type: Article
Title: Variation in dental morphology and inference of continental ancestry in admixed Latin Americans
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23756
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23756
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Latin America, admixture, ancestry inference, dental morphology
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Cell and Developmental Biology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10067604
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