title: Genetic diversity of disease-associated loci in Turkish population.
abstract: Many consortia and international projects have investigated the human genetic variation of a large number of ethno-geographic groups. However, populations with peculiar genetic features, such as the Turkish population, are still absent in publically available datasets. To explore the genetic predisposition to health-related traits of the Turkish population, we analyzed 34 genes associated with different health-related traits (for example, lipid metabolism, cardio-vascular diseases, hormone metabolism, cellular detoxification, aging and energy metabolism). We observed relevant differences between the Turkish population and populations with non-European ancestries (that is, Africa and East Asia) in some of the investigated genes (that is, AGT, APOE, CYP1B1, GNB3, IL10, IL6, LIPC and PON1). As most complex traits are highly polygenic, we developed polygenic scores associated with different health-related traits to explore the genetic diversity of the Turkish population with respect to other human groups. This approach showed significant differences between the Turkish population and populations with non-European ancestries, as well as between Turkish and Northern European individuals. This last finding is in agreement with the genetic structure of European and Middle East populations, and may also agree with epidemiological evidences about the health disparities of Turkish communities in Northern European countries.
authors.affiliation: 1] School of Health Science, Aksaray University, Aksaray, Turkey [2] GENAR Institute for Public Health and Genomics Research, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sefayet
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karaca
authors.affiliation: 1] GENAR Institute for Public Health and Genomics Research, Ankara, Turkey [2] Department of Social Medicine, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tomris
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cesuroglu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Arts, Aksaray University, Aksaray, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karaca
authors.affiliation: 1] GENAR Institute for Public Health and Genomics Research, Ankara, Turkey [2] Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Science, Zirve University, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sema
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Erge
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, West Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Polimanti
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D005787:Gene Frequency; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D019655:Quantitative Trait, Heritable; D014421:Turkey