title: People of the British Isles: preliminary analysis of genotypes and surnames in a UK-control population.
abstract: There is a great deal of interest in a fine-scale population structure in the UK, both as a signature of historical immigration events and because of the effect population structure may have on disease association studies. Although population structure appears to have a minor impact on the current generation of genome-wide association studies, it is likely to have a significant part in the next generation of studies designed to search for rare variants. A powerful way of detecting such structure is to control and document carefully the provenance of the samples involved. In this study, we describe the collection of a cohort of rural UK samples (The People of the British Isles), aimed at providing a well-characterised UK-control population that can be used as a resource by the research community, as well as providing a fine-scale genetic information on the British population. So far, some 4000 samples have been collected, the majority of which fit the criteria of coming from a rural area and having all four grandparents from approximately the same area. Analysis of the first 3865 samples that have been geocoded indicates that 75% have a mean distance between grandparental places of birth of 37.3 km, and that about 70% of grandparental places of birth can be classed as rural. Preliminary genotyping of 1057 samples demonstrates the value of these samples for investigating a fine-scale population structure within the UK, and shows how this can be enhanced by the use of surnames.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, University of Oxford, ORCRB, Headington, Oxford, UK. bruce.winney@clinpharm.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Winney
authors.forename: Abdelhamid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boumertit
authors.forename: Tammy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Day
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Davison
authors.forename: Chikodi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Echeta
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Evseeva
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hutnik
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leslie
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nicodemus
authors.forename: Ellen C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Royrvik
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tonks
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cheshire
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Longley
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mateos
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Groom
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Relton
authors.forename: D Tim
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Bishop
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Black
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Northwood
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Parkinson
authors.forename: Timothy M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Frayling
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Steele
authors.forename: Julian R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Sampson
authors.forename: Turi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: Ron
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.forename: Derek
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Middleton
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jennings
authors.forename: Rory
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bowden
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Donnelly
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bodmer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000483:Alleles; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005838:Genotype; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009275:Names; D011153:Population / Q000235:genetics*; D006113:United Kingdom; D055815:Young Adult