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 ([Formula: see text]) or genome-wide significant SNPs ([Formula: see text]) for height and body mass index (BMI) in samples of European (EUR; [Formula: see text]) and African (AFR; [Formula: see text]) ancestry. The [Formula: see text] ..