MixFit: Methodology for Computing Ancestry-Related Genetic Scores at the Individual Level and Its Application to the Estonian and Finnish Population Studies

Toomas Haller, Liis Leitsalu, Krista Fischer, Marja-Liisa Nuotio, Tõnu Esko, Dorothea Irene Boomsma, Kirsten Ohm Kyvik, Tim D Spector, Markus Perola, Andres Metspalu

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Ancestry information at the individual level can be a valuable resource for personalized medicine, medical, demographical and history research, as well as for tracing back personal history. We report a new method for quantitatively determining personal genetic ancestry based on genome-wide data. Numerical ancestry component scores are assigned to individuals based on comparisons with reference populations. These comparisons are conducted with an existing analytical pipeline making use of genotype phasing, similarity matrix computation and our addition-multidimensional best fitting by MixFit. The method is demonstrated by studying Estonian and Finnish populations in geographical context. We show the main differences in the genetic composition of these otherwise close European populations and how they have influenced each other. The components of our analytical pipeline are freely available computer programs and scripts one of which was developed in house (available at: www.geenivaramu.ee/en/tools/mixfit).

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0170325
Pages (from-to)e0170325
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Jan 2017

Funding

FundersFunder number
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme692145, 313010

    Keywords

    • Journal Article

    Cohort Studies

    • Netherlands Twin Register (NTR)

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