Learn about the flu shot, COVID-19 vaccine, and our masking policy »
New to MyHealth?
Manage Your Care From Anywhere.
Access your health information from any device with MyHealth. You can message your clinic, view lab results, schedule an appointment, and pay your bill.
ALREADY HAVE AN ACCESS CODE?
DON'T HAVE AN ACCESS CODE?
NEED MORE DETAILS?
MyHealth for Mobile
Get the iPhone MyHealth app »
Get the Android MyHealth app »
Abstract
DNA polymorphic markers and self-defined ethnicity groupings are used to group individuals with shared ancient geographic ancestry. Here we studied whether ancestral relationships between individuals could be identified from metabolic screening data reported by the California newborn screening (NBS) program. NBS data includes 41 blood metabolites measured by tandem mass spectrometry from singleton babies in 17 parent-reported ethnicity groupings. Ethnicity-associated differences identified for 71% of NBS metabolites (29 of 41, Cohen's d > 0.5) showed larger differences in blood levels of acylcarnitines than of amino acids (P < 1e-4). A metabolic distance measure, developed to compare ethnic groupings based on metabolic differences, showed low positive correlation with genetic and ancient geographic distances between the groups' ancestral world populations. Several outlier group pairs were identified with larger genetic and smaller metabolic distances (Black versus White) or with smaller genetic and larger metabolic distances (Chinese versus Japanese) indicating the influence of genetic and of environmental factors on metabolism. Using machine learning, comparison of metabolic profiles between all pairs of ethnic groupings distinguished individuals with larger genetic distance (Black versus Chinese, AUC = 0.96), while genetically more similar individuals could not be separated metabolically (Hispanic versus Native American, AUC = 0.51). Additionally, we identified metabolites informative for inferring metabolic ancestry in individuals from genetically similar populations, which included biomarkers for inborn metabolic disorders (C10:1, C12:1, C3, C5OH, Leucine-Isoleucine). This work sheds new light on metabolic differences in healthy newborns in diverse populations, which could have implications for improving genetic disease screening.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ymgme.2022.10.002
View details for PubMedID 36252453