PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jeremy J. Berg
AU  - Arbel Harpak
AU  - Nasa Sinnott-Armstrong
AU  - Anja Moltke Jørgensen
AU  - Hakhamanesh Mostafavi
AU  - Yair Field
AU  - Evan A. Boyle
AU  - Xinjun Zhang
AU  - Fernando Racimo
AU  - Jonathan K. Pritchard
AU  - Graham Coop
TI  - Reduced signal for polygenic adaptation of height in UK Biobank
AID  - 10.1101/354951
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 354951
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/12/10/354951.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/12/10/354951.full
AB  - Several recent papers have reported strong signals of selection on European polygenic height scores. These analyses used height effect estimates from the GIANT consortium and replication studies. Here, we describe a new analysis based on the the UK Biobank (UKB), a large, independent dataset. We find that the signals of selection using UKB effect-size estimates for height are strongly attenuated or absent. We also provide evidence that previous analyses were confounded by population stratification Therefore, the conclusion of strong polygenic adaptation now lacks support. Moreover, these discrepancies highlight (1) that methods for correcting for population stratification in GWAS may not always be sufficient for polygenic trait analyses, and (2) that claims of differences in polygenic scores between populations should be treated with caution until these issues are better understood.