title: Genetics of Type 2 Diabetes: the Power of Isolated Populations.
abstract: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) affects millions of people worldwide. Improving the understanding of the underlying mechanisms and ultimately improving the treatment strategies are, thus, of great interest. To achieve this, identification of genetic variation predisposing to T2D is important. A large number of variants have been identified in large outbred populations, mainly from Europe and Asia. However, to elucidate additional variation, isolated populations have a number of advantageous properties, including increased amounts of linkage disequilibrium, and increased probability for presence of high frequency disease-associated variants due to genetic drift. Collectively, this increases the statistical power to detect association signals in isolated populations compared to large outbred populations. In this review, we elaborate on why isolated populations are a powerful resource for the identification of complex disease variants and describe their contributions to the understanding of the genetics of T2D.
authors.affiliation: The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Section of Metabolic Genetics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 1, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mette Korre
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Andersen
authors.affiliation: The Bioinformatics Centre, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Ole Maaløes Vej 5, 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Casper-Emil Tingskov
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.affiliation: The Bioinformatics Centre, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Ole Maaløes Vej 5, 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Ida
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Moltke
authors.affiliation: The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Section of Metabolic Genetics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 1, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.|Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southern Denmark, J.B. Winsløws Vej 19, 3, 5000, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Torben
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.affiliation: The Bioinformatics Centre, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Ole Maaløes Vej 5, 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Albrechtsen
authors.affiliation: The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Section of Metabolic Genetics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 1, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark. niels.grarup@sund.ku.dk.
authors.forename: Niels
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Grarup
mesh_terms: D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: Genetic drift; Genome-wide association study; Isolated populations; Linkage disequilibrium; Statistical power; Type 2 diabetes