PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Pankratov, Vasili AU - Mezzavilla, Massimo AU - Aneli, Serena AU - Fusco, Daniela AU - Wilson, James F AU - Metspalu, Mait AU - Provero, Paolo AU - Pagani, Luca AU - Marnetto, Davide TI - Ancestral genetic components are consistently associated with the complex trait landscape in European biobanks AID - 10.1101/2023.10.04.560881 DP - 2023 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 2023.10.04.560881 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/10/05/2023.10.04.560881.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/10/05/2023.10.04.560881.full AB - The genetic structure in Europe was mostly shaped by admixture between the Western Hunter-Gatherer, Anatolian Neolithic and Steppeā€™s Yamnaya ancestral components. Such structure is regarded as a confounder in GWAS and follow-up studies, and gold-standard methods exist to correct for it. However, it is still poorly understood to which extent these ancestral components contribute to complex trait variation in present-day Europe.In this work we harness the UK Biobank to address this question. By extensive demographic simulations and incorporating previous results obtained using the Estonian Biobank, we carefully evaluate the significance and scope of our findings.Heart rate, platelet count, monocyte percentage and many other traits show stratification similar to height and pigmentation traits, likely targets of selection and divergence across ancestral groups. The consistency of our results across biobanks indicates that these ancestry-specific genetic predispositions act as a source of variability and as potential confounders in Europe as a whole.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.