Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Review Article
  • Published:

Deconstructing the relationship between genetics and race

Key Points

  • Highlighting genetic differences among people could unfortunately reinforce stereotypical features of populations, but exploring the genetic influence on common health-related traits and disparities could also be beneficial to human health.

  • Accurate inference of an individual's ancestry using genetic data depends on several factors, including the number of genotypes used, the degree of differentiation among groups and how each group is sampled.

  • Inferences of human population structure based on genetic data often differ from inferences based on phenotypic characteristics.

  • Although there might be little variation among groups, it is highly structured and therefore useful for distinguishing groups and allocating individuals into groups.

  • Insofar as geographical ancestry corresponds to some notions of race, patterns of genetic variation will also co-vary with these notions.

  • The inaccurate measure of ancestry afforded by proxies of genetic relationships such as race or ethnicity can sometimes be useful, but in other circumstances, might lower the chances of findings disease-susceptibility loci and lessen the predictive value of clinical inferences.

Abstract

The success of many strategies for finding genetic variants that underlie complex traits depends on how genetic variation is distributed among human populations. This realization has intensified the investigation of genetic differences among groups, which are often defined by commonly used racial labels. Some scientists argue that race is an adequate proxy of ancestry, whereas others claim that race belies how genetic variation is apportioned. Resolving this controversy depends on understanding the complicated relationship between race, ancestry and the demographic history of humans. Recent discoveries are helping us to deconstruct this relationship, and provide better guidance to scientists and policy makers.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Inference of individual ancestry proportions from genetic data.
Figure 2: Comparison of genetic differences among individuals in different 'racial' populations.
Figure 3: Marker performance for inference of individual ancestry versus estimation of FST or RST.
Figure 4: Comparison of polymorphism frequencies between African– and European–Americans.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Provine, W. B. Genetics and the biology of race crossing. Science 182, 790–796 (1973).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Gould, S. J. The Mismeasure of Man (W. W. Norton Press, New York, 1981).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Lewontin, R. C. Human Diversity (Scientific American Books, Inc., New York, 1982).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bamshad, M. J. & Olson, S. E. Does Race Exist? Sci. Am. 289, 78–85 (2003).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Smedley, A. Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview, 2nd edn (Westview Press, Boulder, 1999).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Lohmueller, K. E., Pearce, C. L., Lander, E. S. & Hirschhorn, J. N. Meta-analysis of genetic association studies supports a contribution of common variants to susceptibility to common disease. Nature Genet. 33, 177–182 (2003).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Elliott, C. & Brodwin, P. Identity and genetic ancestry gracing. B. Med. J. 325, 1469–1471 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Foster, M. W. & Sharp, R. R. Race, ethnicity, and genomics: social classifications as proxies of biological heterogeneity. Genome Res. 12, 844–850 (2002). An introduction to some of the problems and challenges of trying to understand the relationship between the social definitions of populations and biologically defined groups.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Li, W. H. & Sadler, L. A. Low nucleotide diversity in man. Genetics 129, 513–523 (1991).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Harpending, H. & Rogers, A. R. Genetic perspectives on human origins and differentiation. Annu. Rev. Genom. Hum. Genet. 1, 361–385 (2000). A good review of genetic evidence on the evolution of modern humans as it pertains to some of the fundamental questions about human demographic history and the impact of natural selection.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Fischer, A., Wiebe, V., Paabo, S. & Przeworski, M. Evidence for a complex demographic history of chimpanzees. Mol. Biol. Evol. 5, 799–808 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Fay, J. C., Wyckoff, G. J. & Wu, C. I. Testing the neutral theory of molecular evolution with genomic data from Drosophila. Nature 415, 1024–1026 (2002).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Nei, M. & Roychoudhury, A. K. Genic variation within and between the three major races of man, Caucasoids, Negroids, and Mongoloids. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 26, 421–443 (1974).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Mountain, J. L. & Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. Multilocus genotypes, a tree of individuals, and human evolutionary history. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 61, 705–718 (1997).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Bowcock, A. M. et al. Drift, admixture, and selection in human evolution: a study with DNA polymorphisms. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 88, 839–843 (1991).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Jorde, L. B. et al. The distribution of human genetic diversity: a comparison of mitochondrial, autosomal, and Y-chromosome data. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 66, 979–988 (2000).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Shriver, M. et al. The genomic distribution of population substructure in four popoulations using 8,255 autosomal SNPs. Hum. Genomics (in the press).

  18. Watkins, W. S. et al. Genetic variation among world populations: inferences from 100 Alu insertion polymorphisms. Genome Res. 13, 1607–1618 (2003).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Wilson, J. F. et al. Population genetic structure of variable drug response. Nature Genet. 29, 265–269 (2001).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Turakulov, R. & Easteal, S. Number of SNPS loci needed to detect population structure. Hum. Hered. 55, 37–45 (2003).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Ramachandran, S., Rosenberg, N. A., Zhivotovsky, L. A. & Feldman, M. W. Robustness of the inference of human population structure: a comparison of X-chromosomal and autosomal microsatellites. Hum. Genom. 1, 87–97 (2004).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Rosenberg, N., Li, L. M., Ward, R. & Pritchard, J. K. Informativeness of genetic markers for inference of ancestry. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 73, 1402–1422 (2003). A comprehensive analysis of worldwide human microsatellite data that examines the amount of information that multi-allelic markers provide about individual ancestry.

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Kittles, R. A. & Weiss, K. M. Race, ancestry, and genes: implications for defining disease risk. Annu. Rev. Genom. 4, 33–67 (2003).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Bamshad, M. J. et al. Human population genetic structure and inference of group membership. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 72, 578–589 (2003).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  25. Rosenberg, N. A. et al. Genetic structure of human populations. Science 298, 2381–2385 (2002). A comprehensive analysis of global patterns of human population structure. Its shows that although there is substantial geographical structuring among populations, the proportion of ancestry of many individuals from one or more of these populations is highly variable.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Bamshad, M. J. et al. Genetic evidence on the origins of Indian caste populations. Genome Res. 11, 994–1004 (2001).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  27. Tishkoff, S. A. & Verrelli, B. C. Patterns of human genetic diversity: implications for human evolutionary history and disease. Annu. Rev. Genom. Hum. Genet. 4, 293–340 (2003).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Malhotra, K. C. & Vasulu, T. S. in Human Population Genetics (ed. Majumder, P. P.) 207–232 (Plenum Press, New York, 1993).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Tajima, A. et al. Genetic origins of the Ainu inferred from combined DNA analyses of maternal and paternal lineages. J. Hum. Genet. 49, 187–193 (2004).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Merilä, J. & Crnokrak, P. Comparison of genetic differentiation at marker loci and quantitative traits. J. Evol. Biol. 14, 892–903 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  31. Tishkoff, S. A. & Williams, S. M. Genetic analysis of African populations: human evolution and complex disease. Nature Rev. Genet. 3, 611–621 (2002).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Zimmerman, P. A. et al. Emergence of FY*Anull in a Plasmodium vivax-endemic region of Papua New Guinea. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA. 96, 13973–13977 (1999).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Bamshad, M. J. et al. A strong signature of balancing selection in the 5′ cis-regulatory region of CCR5. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 99, 10539–10544 (2002).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Wooding, S. et al. Natural selection and molecular evolution in PTC, a bitter-taste receptor gene. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 74, 637–646 (2004).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  35. Haga, S. B. & Venter, J. C. FDA races in wrong direction. Science 301, 466 (2003).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Lewontin, R. C. The apportionment of human diversity. Evol. Biol. 6, 381–398 (1972).

    Google Scholar 

  37. Cavalli, L. L. & Piazza, A. Analysis of evolution: evolutionary rates, independence, and treeness. Theor. Pop. Biol. 8, 127–165 (1975).

    Google Scholar 

  38. Jorde, L. B., Watkins, W. S. & Bamshad, M. J. Human population genomics: a bridge from evolutionary history to genetic medicine. Hum. Mol. Genet. 10, 2199–2207 (2001).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Wright, S. The genetical structure of populations. Annu. Eugenics 15, 323–354 (1951).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Weir, B. S. & Hill, W. G. Estimating F-statistics. Annu. Rev. Genom. Hum. Genet. 36, 721–750 (2002).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Akey, J. M., Zhang, G., Zhang, K., Jin, L. & Shriver, M. D. Interrogating a high-density SNP map for signatures of natural selection. Genome Res. 12, 1805–1814 (2002).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  42. Long, J. C. & Kittles, R. A. Human genetic diversity and the nonexistence of biological races. Hum. Biol. 75, 449–471 (2003).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Templeton, A. R. Human races: a genetic and evolutionary perspective. Am. Anthropol. 100, 632–650 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  44. Steele, F. R. Genetic 'differences.' Genomics 79, 145 (2002).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. AAA. American Anthropological Association Statement on Race. Am. Anthropol. 100, 712–713 (1999).

  46. Office of Management and Budget. Revisions to the standards for the classification of federal data on race and ethnicity [online], <http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/ombdir15.html> (1997).

  47. Edwards, A. W. Human genetic diversity: Lewontin's fallacy. BioEssays 25, 798–801 (2003).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  48. King, M. & Motulsky, A. G. Mapping human history. Science 298, 2342–2343 (2002).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Reich, D. E. & Lander, E. S. On the allelic spectrum of human disease. Trends Genet. 17, 199–204 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  50. Gabriel, S. B. et al. The structure of haplotype blocks in the human genome. Science 296, 22225–2229 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  51. Nielsen, R. Population genetic analysis of ascertained SNP data. Hum. Genom. 1, 218–224 (2004).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  52. Carlson, C. S. et al. Additional SNPs and linkage-disequilibrium analyses are necessary for whole-genome association studies in humans. Nature Genet. 33, 518–521 (2003).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  53. Crawford, D. C. et al. Haplotype diversity across 100 candidate genes for inflammation, lipid metabolism, and blood pressure regulation in two populations. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 74, 610–622 (2004).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  54. Shriver, M. D. et al. Skin pigmentation, biogeographical ancestry, and admixture mapping. Hum. Genet. 112, 387–399 (2003). A clear example of how estimates of individual ancestry proportions can be used to identify genotypes that influence phenotypes that differ between populations.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  55. Hoggart, C. J. et al. Control of confounding in genetic associations in stratified populations. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 72, 1492–1504 (2003).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  56. Pritchard, J. K. & Rosenberg, N. A. Use of unlinked genetic markers to detect population structure using multilocus genotype data. Genetics 155, 945–959 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  57. Hinds, D. A. et al. Matching strategies for genetic association studies in structured populations. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 74, 317–325 (2004).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  58. Parra, E. J. et al. Estimating African–American admixture proportions by use of population-specific alleles. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 63, 1839–1851 (1998).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  59. Frudakis, T. et al. A classifier for the SNP-based inference of ancestry. J. Forens. Sci. 48, 1–12 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  60. Shriver, M. D. & Kittles, R. A. Genetic ancestry and the search for personalized genetic histories. Nature Rev. Genet. 5, 611–618 (2004).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  61. Bamshad, M. & Wooding, S. P. Signatures of natural selection in the human genome. Nature Rev. Genet. 4, 99–111 (2003).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  62. Martinson, J. J., Chapman, N. H., Rees, D. C., Liu, Y. T. & Clegg, J. B. Global distribution of the CCR5 gene 32-basepair deletion. Nature Genet. 16, 100–103 (1997).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  63. Hardy, J., Singleton, A. & Gwinn-Hardy, K. Ethnic differences and disease phenotypes. Science 300, 739–740 (2003).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  64. Wiencke, J. K. Impact of race/ethnicity on molecular pathways in human cancer. Nature Rev. Cancer 4, 79–84 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  65. Holden, C. Race and medicine. Science 302, 594–596 (2003).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  66. Yancy, C. D. Does race matter in heart failure. Am. Heart J. 146, 203–206 (2003).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  67. Fernandez, J. R. et al. Association of African genetic admixture with resting metabolic rate and obesity among women. Obes. Res. 11, 904–911 (2003).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  68. Gower, B. A. et al. Using genetic admixture to explain racial differences in insulin-related phenotypes. Diabetes 52, 1047–1051 (2003).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  69. Farrer, L. A. et al. Effects of age, sex, and ethnicity on the association between apolipoprotein E genotype and Alzheimer disease. A meta-analysis. APOE and Alzheimer Disease Meta Analysis Consortium. JAMA 278, 1349–1356 (1997).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  70. Martin, M. P. et al. Genetic acceleration of AIDS progression by a promoter variant of CCR5. Science 282, 1907–1911 (1998).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  71. Gonzalez, E. et al. Race-specific HIV-1 disease-modifying effects associated with CCR5 haplotypes. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA. 96, 12004–12009 (1999). A noteworthy example of genetic variants associated with different outcomes of HIV-1 infection in African–Americans versus European–Americans.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  72. Ogura, Y. et al. A frameshift mutation in NOD2 associated with susceptibility to Crohn's disease. Nature 411, 603–606 (2001).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  73. Hugot, J. P. et al. Association of NOD2 leucine-rich repeat variants with susceptibility to Crohn's disease. Nature 411, 599–603 (2001).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  74. Inoue, N. Lack of common NOD2 variants in Japanese patients with Crohn's disease. Gastroenterology 123, 86–91 (2002).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  75. Burgess, M. Beyond consent: ethical and social issues in genetic testing. Nature Rev. Genet. 2, 147–151 (2001).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  76. Kaplan, J. K. & Bennett, T. Use of race and ethnicity in biomedical publication. JAMA 289, 2709–2716 (2003).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  77. Sankar, P. & Cho, M. K. Toward a new vocabulary of human genetic variation. Science 298, 1337–1338 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  78. Sarich, V. & Miele, F. Race, the reality of human differences. (Westview, Boulder, Colorado, 2004).

    Google Scholar 

  79. Smedley, A. 'Race' and the construction of human identity. Am. Anthropol. 100, 690–702 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  80. Risch, N., Burchard, E., Ziv, E. & Tang, H. Categorization of humans in biomedical research: genes, race, and disease. Genome Biol. 3, 1–12 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  81. Burchard, E. G. et al. The importance of race and ethnic background in biomedical research and clinical practice. N. Engl. J. Med. 348, 1170–1175 (2003).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  82. Cooper, R. S., Kaufman, J. S. & Ward, R. Race and genomics. N. Engl. J. Med. 348, 1166–1170 (2003).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  83. Schwartz, R. S. Racial profiling in medical research. N. Engl. J. Med. 344, 1392–1393 (2001).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  84. Stephens, J. Racial meanings and scientific methods: changing policies for NIH-sponsored publications reporting human variation. J. Health Politics 6, 1033–1087 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank S. Guthery and M. Pungliya for technical assistance, T. Frudakis for access to data from DNAPrint Genomics, S. Olson and L. Jorde for discussion, and four anonymous reviewers for comments and criticisms. M.B. and S.W. are supported by the US National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Bamshad.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Benjamin A. Salisbury and J. Claiborne Stephens are both employees and shareholders of Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Supplementary information

41576_2004_BFnrg1401_MOESM1_ESM.txt

supplementary information S1 (data)100 Alu insertion polymorphisms in Africans, Asians and EuropeansFile name: Bamshad_continental_alu_100.txt Refers to figures: 1a,1b,3a Column 1: Af, African; Eu, European; As, Asian. Column 2: continent code. Columns 3–103: Alu genotypes: 0, absent; 1, present. The genotype of each individual occupies 2 lines of text. Missing data indicated by ‘-9’. (TXT 84 kb)

41576_2004_BFnrg1401_MOESM2_ESM.txt

supplementary information S2 (data)500 SNPs (minor allele) in Genaissance panel File name: Genaissance_panel_snps_500.txt Refers to figure: 1c Column 1: Af, African; Eu, European; As, Asian.Missing data indicated by ‘X’. (TXT 120 kb)

41576_2004_BFnrg1401_MOESM3_ESM.txt

supplementary information S3 (data)250 SNPs (minor allele) in Genaissance panel File name: Genaissance_panel_snps_250.txtRefers to figure: 1d Column 1: Af, African; Eu, European; As, Asian.Missing data indicated by ‘X’. (TXT 60 kb)

41576_2004_BFnrg1401_MOESM4_ESM.txt

supplementary information S4 (data)377 STRs typed in 1,066 individuals from CEPH diversity panel File name: Rosenberg_ceph_subset_str.txt Refers to figure: 2 Column 1: continent ID (Af, African; Eu, European; As, Asian) and individual ID. Genotypes scored by allele size and alleles at each locus are separated by a ‘.’. Missing data indicated by ‘?’. (TXT 3300 kb)

41576_2004_BFnrg1401_MOESM5_ESM.txt

supplementary information S5 (data)60 STRs typed in Africans, Asians and Europeans File name: Bamshad_continental_str_60.txt Refers to figure: 3b Column 1: Af, African; Eu, European; As, Asian. Column 2: continent code. Columns 3–63: STR genotypes scored by relative size of allele. The genotype of each individual occupies 2 lines of text. Missing data indicated by ‘-9’. (TXT 56 kb)

41576_2004_BFnrg1401_MOESM6_ESM.txt

supplementary information S6 (data)SNP (minor allele) frequencies from 3,391 genes resequenced in African and European–Americans in Geniassance panel File name: Genaissance_panel_snps_50k.txt Refers to figure: 4 Column 1: q_Af, African; q_Eu, European. (TXT 623 kb)

Related links

Related links

DATABASES

Entrez

CCR5

NOD2 (CARD15)

TAS2R38

OMIM

Alzheimer disease

Crohn disease

cystic fibrosis

haemochromatosis

HIV-1

FURTHER INFORMATION

CEPH Human Diversity Panel

Glossary

POPULATION STRUCTURE

Organization of a population into sub-populations as a consequence of factors such as finite population size and geographical subdivision.

FOUNDER POPULATION

A group of individuals that establishes a new population.

ASSORTATIVE MATING

Nonrandom choice of mates based on phenotypic characteristics such as geographical proximity, skin colour, height or religion.

GENETIC DRIFT

Fluctuations of allele frequencies over time due to chance alone.

VARIANCE

A statistic that quantifies the dispersion of data about the mean.

CLINE

A gradient in the frequency of an allele.

ADMIXTURE

The mixing of two or more genetically differentiated populations.

QUANTITATIVE TRAIT

A measurable trait that depends on the cumulative action of many genes and that can vary among individuals over a given range to produce a continuous distribution of phenotypes. Common examples include height, weight and blood pressure.

LOCAL POSITIVE SELECTION

A type of natural selection in which favoured variants increase in frequency in a localized geographical region.

DUFFY BLOOD GROUP

This group is defined by variants in a chemokine receptor that is present on the surface of several types of cell, including red blood cells. This receptor must be present for Plasmodium vivax to invade cells and cause malaria.

CONVERGENT EVOLUTION

A process in which traits evolve to a similar state in two or more genetically distinct populations, typically as an adaptive response.

BALANCING SELECTION

A selection regime that results in the maintenance of two or more alleles at a single locus in a population.

CEPH HUMAN DIVERSITY PANEL

A resource of 1,064 cultured lymphoblastoid cell lines from individuals in 51 different world populations that are banked at the Foundation Jean Dausset (CEPH) in Paris, France.

RST

A statistic similar to FST that is used to estimate differentiation among groups by using microsatellite markers.

ASCERTAINMENT

The selection of samples (such as markers, individuals, populations) through a process that often deviates from random sampling and can therefore introduce bias.

HAPLOTYPE

The combination of alleles or genetic markers that is found on a single chromosome of a given individual.

HAEMOCHROMATOSIS

An autosomal recessive condition that is common in Western Europeans and their descendants. It is characterized by excessive iron absorption by the gut, with subsequent accumulation in the liver, heart, joints and pancreas.

CYSTIC FIBROSIS

An autosomal recessive condition that is common in Western Europeans and their descendants. It is characterized by pancreatic insufficiency and obstruction of the lungs by thick, heavy mucus.

PENETRANCE

The proportion of individuals with a specific genotype who manifest this genotype at the phenotype level.

COMPLEX TRAIT

A trait that is influenced by the environment plus a combination of polymorphisms in at least several genes, each of which has a small effect.

ADMIXTURE MAPPING

A strategy for mapping loci for complex traits that differ in prevalence between two populations that have recently admixed with each other.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bamshad, M., Wooding, S., Salisbury, B. et al. Deconstructing the relationship between genetics and race. Nat Rev Genet 5, 598–609 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1401

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1401

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing