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.

DISEASE GENETICS

Unraveling the genetic contributions to complex traits across different ethnic groups

Nature Medicine volume 26, pages 467–469 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Trans-ethnic study shows promise in the identification of genetic commonalities and differences for the contribution of traits to lifespan across genetically diverse populations.

Individual polygenic risk scores (PRSs) (also known as ‘genetic risk scores’) can be calculated for a range of traits and disease, which are based on prior genetic results, mainly GWASs. PRSs may be useful in personal medicine for identifying those at greater risk of a negative health outcome and for facilitating the decision to use targeted interventions to counteract the risk. They may also be useful for improving diagnosis and prognosis. However, in a recent analysis of the ancestry of participants in PRS studies from 2008 to 2017, only 33% included participants of non-European ancestry. Perhaps not unexpectedly, PRSs based on European results have less utility for non-European samples5.

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

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

References

  1. Hindorff, L. A. et al. Nat. Rev. Genet. 19, 175–185 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Sirugo, G., Williams, S. M. & Tishkoff, S. A. Cell 177, 1080 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Martin, A. R. et al. Nat. Genet. 51, 584–591 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Sakaue, S. A. Nat. Med. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0785-8 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Duncan, L. et al. Nat. Commun. 10, 3328 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Mulder, N. et al. Pharm. Genomics Pers. Med. 11, 59–66 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Karen A. Mather & Anbupalam Thalamuthu

  2. Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Karen A. Mather

Authors
  1. Karen A. Mather
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anbupalam Thalamuthu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen A. Mather.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mather, K.A., Thalamuthu, A. Unraveling the genetic contributions to complex traits across different ethnic groups. Nat Med 26, 467–469 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0834-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0834-3

Search

Advanced 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