Latino Genomes Reveal Hidden DNA

By Jake Miller, Harvard Medical School

Hidden in the tangled, repetitious folds of DNA structures called centromeres, researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute have discovered the hiding place of 20 million base pairs of genetic sequence, finding a home for 10 percent of the DNA that is thought to be missing from the standard reference map of the human genome.

Mathematician Giulio Genovese, a computational biologist in genetics at HMS and at the Broad Institute, working in the lab of geneticist Steven McCarroll, HMS assistant professor of genetics and director of genetics for the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute, found a way to use the genomes of Latinos to interpolate the locations of these missing pieces. Their findings were published in The American Journal of Human Geneticson August 8.

By using the genomes of admixed populations—populations, such as Latinos and African Americans that derive ancestry from more than one continent—the team developed a sophisticated mathematical method to help fill in the uncharted regions on the human genome map.

Click HERE to read the full story.