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Genetic ancestry study of Los Angeles Latinos


Bob Eisenman

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In 2009 a paper was published about Latinos

"Latinos form the largest minority ethnic group in the US, with close to 100 million individuals projected by 2050"

https://bmcgenet.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2156-10-71#Tab2

The paper describes Latinos from an ancestral genetic marker analysis perspective. My attempt to read the paper leads to the following key (copied from the paper) excerpts:

1_The degree of genetic variation within 'Latino' populations is not well understood, so in this paper we evaluated admixture in Latinos ascertained through the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study, the most comprehensive eye disease study in the US

2_We examined the genomic ancestry characterizing 538 Latinos drawn from the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study [LALES]

3_We detected strong evidence for recent population admixture in LALES Latinos.

4_Overall, LALES birth locations were dispersed as 68.4% Mexico, 18.2% USA, 5.4% El Salvador, 3.4% Guatemala, and 4.6% from other places.

5_Table 2 Estimation of ancestry proportions for the LALES, MEC/Chinese/CEPH, and Native American populations

LALES paper figure 2LALES paper figure 2

Note.

Estimates for the LALES Latino population are based on the LALES controls. European - EU; African - AF; Asian - AS; Native American - NA.

MEC stands for 'multi etnic cohort'

6_The average ancestry estimates across LALES Latinos ranged from 42.2% to 51.4% NA and from 32.1% to 37.9% EU

7_Roughly 18% of the LALES Latinos were born within the US and 68% within Mexico, with smaller proportions born in Guatemala and El Salvador (Table 1).

8_When we split the data by birth origin (i.e. US vs. Mexico vs. Central/South America or El Salvador/Guatemala), even though there are some differences in EU and NA proportions between MEC and LALES Latinos, we detect in both cohorts a gradient of linear increase in NA ancestry from North (US) to South (El Salvador for LALES or South America for MEC) with a corresponding decrease in European descent (Table 4).

 

NA (native American ancestry) -  increasing trend in Latinos from North (USA-lower percentage) to South (Mexico-higher percentage), (El Salvador- Guatemala - highest in study)
  1. Note.
  2. LALES = Los Angeles Latino Eye Study
  3. MEC = Multi Ethnic Cohort
  4. EU - European; AF - African; AS - Asian; NA - Native American

9_regardless of the admixture model or the set of markers analyzed, the North to South trend among Latino populations for NA and EU mixtures remains the consistent; lowest NA heritage within US born Latinos, and highest within El-Salvador/Guatemala.

10_from a total of 15,931 pair-wise SNP combinations we obtained a subset of 15,163 pairs formed by SNPs positioned on different chromosomes

11_These results point towards evidence for recent population admixture in Latinos that have recently populated the US, as they compose ~82% of the LALES vs. 50% of the MEC cohort.

12_In summary, we found strong evidence for recent population admixture in Latinos ascertained through the LALES cohort.

13_The highest ancestral component was Native American, with gradients of increasing NA ancestry as a function of birth origin from North to South (US, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador).

14_These findings reflect the historic migration patterns of the NA population and suggest that while the 'Latino' label is used to categorize the entire population, there exists a strong degree of heterogeneity within that population,

 

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The widespread practice of DNA data collection will give a big financial advantage to health insurance companies, because they can forgo insuring people with genetic diseases and damaged DNA (caused by, say, smoking, overeating, and other environmental exposures). Presumably that's why several DNA collection agencies have already had their data stolen.

While I understand the future of health care will be strongly pedicated on your DNA sample (inevitably a voluntary DNA sample must be given before a hospital or employee will look at you), I find it hilarious that you people are paying good money for companies to process and sell your DNA data! Have any of you read the terms of usage? Any DNA data they collect from you is theirs in perpetua, whether or not they anonomize it. 

Health insurance companies are just picking stock, and they won't insure losers if they can help it. 

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On 10/12/2019 at 11:37 AM, LanghamP said:

widespread practice of DNA data

The guidelines for patients rights and confidentiality are quite detailed for such studies. The use of patient dna data needs to clear the data holder's guidelines and the grant's rules before it can be accessed and funded.

Screenshot_20191013-210632-01

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Bob Eisenman said:

The guidelines for patients rights and confidentiality are quite detailed for such studies. The use of patient dna data needs to clear the data holder's guidelines and the grant's rules before it can be accessed and funded.

Screenshot_20191013-210632-01

 

 

That's not true at all!

You not only have few rights, and the dna can uniquely identify you (its original purpose), but the chances of you finding out your private data has been sold is essentially zero. And how would damages be distributed? If recent credit data hacks are a sign, then your compensation is...wait for it...a free dna test! However, that's not relevant, because signing with a DNA test means signing away all rights to your dna.

Giving out your DNA data isn't for the faint of heart.

Industry giants Ancestry.com, 23andMe, MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA market their services online, share test results on websites, and even offer tutorials on how to search for relatives in phone directories, or share results in social media. They often also claim rights to your genetic data and sell access to their databases to big pharmaceutical and medtech companies.

Big pharma wants your DNA. 23andMe revealed a $300 million USD deal with pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline in 2018 that gives them access to aggregate customer data. Calico Life Sciences, a medtech company owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is the primary research partner of Ancestry.com.

Your data could be hacked, leaked or breached. Third party sharing is common practice among companies. The more people have access to your DNA, the more vulnerable it is to being hacked. As companies amass more data, they will become increasingly attractive to criminals and vulnerable to cyber theft.

 

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49 minutes ago, Bob Eisenman said:

I think your perspective from a how it is experience it off base. You're looking for a fight....take care.

Did you know 1st generation Latinos have low divorce rates while 2nd generation Latinos have some of the very highest?

I'm guessing there's a divorce gene that's turned on when they reach these shores. Something in the environment...

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