title: Ancestry-related assortative mating in Latino populations.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  While spouse correlations have been documented for numerous traits, no prior studies have assessed assortative mating for genetic ancestry in admixed populations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Using 104 ancestry informative markers, we examined spouse correlations in genetic ancestry for Mexican spouse pairs recruited from Mexico City and the San Francisco Bay Area, and Puerto Rican spouse pairs recruited from Puerto Rico and New York City. In the Mexican pairs, we found strong spouse correlations for European and Native American ancestry, but no correlation in African ancestry. In the Puerto Rican pairs, we found significant spouse correlations for African ancestry and European ancestry but not Native American ancestry. Correlations were not attributable to variation in socioeconomic status or geographic heterogeneity. Past evidence of spouse correlation was also seen in the strong evidence of linkage disequilibrium between unlinked markers, which was accounted for in regression analysis by ancestral allele frequency difference at the pair of markers (European versus Native American for Mexicans, European versus African for Puerto Ricans). We also observed an excess of homozygosity at individual markers within the spouses, but this provided weaker evidence, as expected, of spouse correlation. Ancestry variance is predicted to decline in each generation, but less so under assortative mating. We used the current observed variances of ancestry to infer even stronger patterns of spouse ancestry correlation in previous generations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Assortative mating related to genetic ancestry persists in Latino populations to the current day, and has impacted on the genomic structure in these populations.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Human Genetics, University of California, San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. rischn@humgen.ucsf.edu
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Risch
authors.forename: Shweta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Choudhry
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Via
authors.forename: Analabha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Basu
authors.forename: Ronnie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sebro
authors.forename: Celeste
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Eng
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Beckman
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thyne
authors.forename: Rocio
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chapela
authors.forename: Jose R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Rodriguez-Santana
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rodriguez-Cintron
authors.forename: Pedro C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Avila
authors.forename: Elad
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ziv
authors.forename: Esteban
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gonzalez Burchard
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005819:Genetic Markers; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000235:genetics*; D006720:Homozygote; D006801:Humans; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D008957:Models, Genetic; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010641:Phenotype; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012923:Social Class
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers