IP: Carlos Flores Infante

Resumen del proyecto: Asthma, a complex phenotype influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, has a considerably higher prevalence in the Canarian population than the rest of Spain (17% vs. 6%).
Familiar clustering and twin studies of this disease indicate an important genetic influence, and a diversity of common genetic risk factors is declared to explain asthma predisposition. We aim evaluating whether common variants of the most robustly associated candidate genes with asthma around the globe also constitute risk factors for disease susceptibility/severity in the Canarian population. Since it is well known that population stratification is increased in recently admixed populations such as the Canarian population, as part of this study we will adjust statistical tests for the effects of population stratification in order to control spurious associations. We plan to perform these adjustments by estimating proportions of genetic ancestry to parental populations (Iberians, Europeans and North Africans), although it is currently not known how many polymorphisms will be needed to obtain adequate estimates.
This proposal aims to explore the performance of a set of 93 polymorphisms, recently reported to be informative for the level of population stratification in Europe (Price et al. PLoS Genet 2008;4:e236), in determining the different genetic ancestries of the Canarian population. For that, DNA samples from individuals with at least two generations of ancestors from the Canary Islands and DNA samples from Spanish, European and North African populations will be compared for this set of polymorphisms.

Entidad financiadora: Fundación Canaria de Investigación y Salud (FUNCIS)