Distribution of ABCB1 polymorphisms among Brazilians: impact of population admixture

Interethnic admixture is a source of cryptic population structure that may lead to spurious genotype-phenotype associations in pharmacogenomic studies. We studied the impact of population stratification on the distribution of ABCB1 polymorphisms (1236C>T, 2677G>T/A and 3435C>T) among Brazilians, a highly admixed population with Amerindian, European and African ancestral roots.

Individual DNA from 320 healthy adults was genotyped with a panel of ancestry informative markers, and the proportions of African component of ancestry (ACA) were estimated. ABCB1 genotypes were determined by the single base extension/termination method. We describe the association between ABCB1 polymorphisms and ACA by fitting a linear proportional odds logistic regression model to the data.

The distribution of the ABCB1 2677G>T/A and 3435C>T, but not the 1236C>T, SNPs displayed a significant trend for decreasing frequency of the T alleles and TT genotypes from White to Intermediate to Black individuals. The same trend was observed in the frequency of the T/nonG/T haplotype at the 1236, 2677 and 3435 loci. When the population sample was proportioned in quartiles, according to the individual ACA estimates, the frequency of the T allele and TT genotype at each locus declined progressively from the lowest (< 0.25 ACA) to the highest (> 0.75 ACA) quartile. Linear proportional odds logistic regression analysis confirmed that the odds of having the T allele at each locus decreases in a continuous manner with the increase of the ACA, throughout the ACA range (0.13-0.94) observed in the overall population sample. A significant association was also detected between the individual ACA estimates and the presence of the T/nonG/T haplotype in the overall population.

Self-identification according to the racial/color categories proposed by the Brazilian Census is insufficient to properly control for population stratification in pharmacogenomic studies of ABCB1.