PAMAM: Power analysis in multiancestry admixture mapping

Admixed populations arise when two or more previously isolated populations interbreed. Admixture mapping (AM) methods are used for tracing the ancestral origin of disease-susceptibility genetic loci in the admixed population such as African American and Latinos. AM is different from genome-wide association studies in that ancestry rather than genotypes are tracked in the association process. The power and sample size of AM primarily depend on proportion of admixture and differences in the risk allele frequencies among the ancestral populations. Ensuring sufficient power to detect the effect of ancestry on disease susceptibility is critical for interpretability and reliability of studies using AM approach. However, there is no power and sample size analysis tool existing for AM studies in admixed population. In this study, we developed power analysis of multiancestry AM (PAMAM) to estimate power and sample size for two-way and three-way population admixtures. PAMAM is the first web-based bioinformatics tool developed to calculate power and sample size in admixed population under a variety of genetic and disease phenotype models. It is a valuable resource for investigators to design a cost-efficient study and develop grant application to pursue AM studies. PAMAM is built on JavaScript back-end with HTML front-end. It is accessible through any modern web browser such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Google Chrome regardless of operating system. It is a user-friendly tool containing links for support information including user manual and examples, and freely available at https://research.cchmc.org/mershalab/PAMAM/login.html.