Quantifying genetic heterogeneity between continental populations for human height and body mass index

Abstract

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in samples of European ancestry have identified thousands of genetic variants associated with complex traits in humans. However, it remains largely unclear whether these associations can be used in non-European populations. Here, we seek to quantify the proportion of genetic variation for a complex trait shared between continental populations. We estimated the between-population correlation of genetic effects at all SNPs (rg) or genome-wide significant SNPs (rg(GWS)) for height and body mass index (BMI) in samples of European (EUR; n= 49 , 839) and African (AFR; n= 17 , 426) ancestry. The r^ g between EUR and AFR was 0.75 (s. e. = 0.035) for height and ..