title: The genetic ancestry of African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans across the United States.
abstract: Over the past 500 years, North America has been the site of ongoing mixing of Native Americans, European settlers, and Africans (brought largely by the trans-Atlantic slave trade), shaping the early history of what became the United States. We studied the genetic ancestry of 5,269 self-described African Americans, 8,663 Latinos, and 148,789 European Americans who are 23andMe customers and show that the legacy of these historical interactions is visible in the genetic ancestry of present-day Americans. We document pervasive mixed ancestry and asymmetrical male and female ancestry contributions in all groups studied. We show that regional ancestry differences reflect historical events, such as early Spanish colonization, waves of immigration from many regions of Europe, and forced relocation of Native Americans within the US. This study sheds light on the fine-scale differences in ancestry within and across the United States and informs our understanding of the relationship between racial and ethnic identities and genetic ancestry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; 23andMe, Inc., Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Electronic address: kbryc@23andme.com.
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bryc
authors.affiliation: 23andMe, Inc., Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.
authors.forename: Eric Y
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Durand
authors.affiliation: School of Computational Sciences, Chapman University, Orange, CA 92866, USA.
authors.forename: J Michael
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Macpherson
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Reich
authors.affiliation: 23andMe, Inc., Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.
authors.forename: Joanna L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Mountain
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000235:genetics*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015894:Genome, Human; D005838:Genotype; D060005:Genotyping Techniques; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial