The opportunities and challenges of integrating population histories into genetic studies of diverse populations: a motivating example from Native Hawaiians

TL;DR

This paper discusses the importance and challenges of incorporating population histories into genetic research, using Native Hawaiians as a case to highlight how developing resources and evolutionary insights can improve health outcomes.

Contribution

It advocates for integrating evolutionary perspectives and developing genomic resources to enhance genetic studies of understudied populations like Native Hawaiians.

Findings

Developing genomic resources can improve population-specific insights.

Integrating evolutionary thinking aids in understanding genetic risk factors.

Focus on Native Hawaiians highlights health disparities and research opportunities.

Abstract

There is an urgent and well-recognized need to extend genetic studies to diverse populations, but several obstacles continue to be prohibitive, including (but not limited to) the difficulty of recruiting individuals from diverse populations in large numbers and the lack of representation in available genomic references. These obstacles notwithstanding, studying multiple diverse populations would provide informative, population-specific insights. Using Native Hawaiians as an example of an understudied population with a unique evolutionary history, I will argue that by developing key genomic resources and integrating evolutionary thinking into genetic epidemiology, we will have the opportunity to efficiently advance our knowledge of the genetic risk factors, ameliorate health disparity, and improve healthcare in this underserved population.