Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) profiles can be classified into phylogenetic clusters (haplogroups), which is of great relevance for evolutionary, forensic and medical genetics. With the extensive growth of the underlying phylogenetic tree summarizing the published mtDNA sequences, the manual process of haplogroup classification would be too time-consuming. The previously published classification tool HaploGrep provided an automatic way to address this issue. Here, we present the completely updated version HaploGrep 2 offering several advanced features, including a generic rule-based system for immediate quality control (QC). This allows detecting artificial recombinants and missing variants as well as annotating rare and phantom mutations. Furthermore, the handling of high-throughput data in form of VCF files is now directly supported. For data output, several graphical reports are generated in real time, such as a multiple sequence alignment format, a VCF format and extended haplogroup QC reports, all viewable directly within the application. In addition, HaploGrep 2 generates a publication-ready phylogenetic tree of all input samples encoded relative to the revised Cambridge Reference Sequence. Finally, new distance measures and optimizations of the algorithm increase accuracy and speed-up the application. HaploGrep 2 can be accessed freely and without any registration at http://haplogrep.uibk.ac.at.

An ongoing source of controversy in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) research is based on the detection of numerous errors in mtDNA profiles that led to erroneous conclusions and false disease associations. Most of these controversies could be avoided if the samples' haplogroup status would be taken into consideration. Knowing the mtDNA haplogroup affiliation is a critical prerequisite for studying mechanisms of human evolution and discovering genes involved in complex diseases, and validating phylogenetic consistency using haplogroup classification is an important step in quality control. However, despite the availability of Phylotree, a regularly updated classification tree of global mtDNA variation, the process of haplogroup classification is still time-consuming and error-prone, as researchers have to manually compare the polymorphisms found in a population sample to those summarized in Phylotree, polymorphism by polymorphism, sample by sample. We present HaploGrep, a fast, reliable and straight-forward algorithm implemented in a Web application to determine the haplogroup affiliation of thousands of mtDNA profiles genotyped for the entire mtDNA or any part of it. HaploGrep uses the latest version of Phylotree and offers an all-in-one solution for quality assessment of mtDNA profiles in clinical genetics, population genetics and forensics. HaploGrep can be accessed freely at http:// haplogrep.uibk.ac.at.

While South Americans are underrepresented in human genomic diversity studies, Brazil has been a classical model for population genetics studies on admixture. We present the results of the EPIGEN Brazil Initiative, the most comprehensive up-to-date genomic analysis of any Latin-American population. A population-based genomewide analysis of 6,487 individuals was performed in the context of worldwide genomic diversity to elucidate how ancestry, kinship, and inbreeding interact in three populations with different histories from the Northeast (African ancestry: 50%), Southeast, and South (both with European ancestry >70%) of Brazil. We showed that ancestry-positive assortative mating permeated Brazilian history. We traced European ancestry in the Southeast/South to a wider European/Middle Eastern region with respect to the Northeast, where ancestry seems restricted to Iberia. By developing an approximate Bayesian computation framework, we infer more recent European immigration to the Southeast/South than to the Northeast. Also, the observed low Native-American ancestry (6-8%) was mostly introduced in different regions of Brazil soon after the European Conquest. We broadened our understanding of the African diaspora, the major destination of which was Brazil, by revealing that Brazilians display two within-Africa ancestry components: one associated with non-Bantu/western Africans (more evident in the Northeast and African Americans) and one associated with Bantu/eastern Africans (more present in the Southeast/ South). Furthermore, the whole-genome analysis of 30 individuals (42-fold deep coverage) shows that continental admixture rather than local post-Columbian history is the main and complex determinant of the individual amount of deleterious genotypes.Latin America | population genetics | Salvador SCAALA | Bambuí Cohort Study of Ageing | Pelotas Birth Cohort Study L atin Americans, who are classical models of the effects of admixture in human populations (1, 2), remain underrepresented in studies of human genomic diversity, notwithstanding recent studies (3, 4). Indeed, no large genome-wide study on admixed South Americans has been conducted so far. Brazil is the largest and most populous Latin-American country. Its over 200 million inhabitants are the product of post-Columbian admixture between Amerindians, Europeans colonizers or immigrants, and African slaves (1). Interestingly, Brazil was the destiny of nearly 40% of the African diaspora, receiving seven times more slaves than the United States (nearly 4 million vs. 600,000).Here, we present results of the EPIGEN Brazil Initiative (https:// epigen.grude.ufmg.br), the most comprehensive up-to-date genomic analysis of a Latin-American population. We genotyped nearly 2.2 million SNPs in 6,487 admixed individuals from three population-based cohorts from different regions with distinct demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds and sequenced the whole genome of 30 individuals from these populations at an To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: edutars@ic...

AimsLp(a) concentrations represent a major cardiovascular risk factor and are almost entirely controlled by one single locus (LPA). However, many genetic factors in LPA governing the enormous variance of Lp(a) levels are still unknown. Since up to 70% of the LPA coding sequence are located in a difficult to access hypervariable copy number variation named KIV-2, we hypothesized that it may contain novel functional variants with pronounced effects on Lp(a) concentrations. We performed a large scale mutation analysis in the KIV-2 using an extreme phenotype approach.Methods and ResultsWe compiled an discovery set of 123 samples showing discordance between LPA isoform phenotype and Lp(a) concentrations and controls. Using ultra-deep sequencing, we identified a splice site variant (G4925A) in preferential association with the smaller LPA isoforms. Follow-up in a European general population (n = 2892) revealed an exceptionally high carrier frequency of 22.1% in the general population. The variant explains 20.6% of the Lp(a) variance in carriers of low molecular weight (LMW) apo(a) isoforms (P = 5.75e-38) and reduces Lp(a) concentrations by 31.3 mg/dL. Accordingly the odds ratio for cardiovascular disease was reduced from 1.39 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.17–1.66, P = 1.89e-04] for wildtype LMW individuals to 1.19 [95%CI: 0.92; 1.56, P = 0.19] in LMW individuals who were additionally positive for G4925A. Functional studies point towards a reduction of splicing efficiency by this novel variant.ConclusionA highly frequent but until now undetected variant in the LPA KIV-2 region is strongly associated with reduced Lp(a) concentrations and reduced cardiovascular risk in LMW individuals.