Aim: To explore the pharmacogenetic differentiation across Latin American populations, using the fixation index statistics (FST). Materials & methods: FST analyses were applied to 1519 pharmacogenetic markers in the 1000 Genomes admixed American superpopulation (1KG_AMR) and an admixed Brazilian sample. Results: Allele-specific FST values for the overall cohort point to little overall pharmacogenetic differentiation (average FST = 0.017); however, moderate differentiation (FST = 0.05-0.15) was observed for 83 markers, while large differentiation (FST = 0.15-0.25) was restricted to three markers. Pairwise FST analysis identified three markers with very large differentiation (FST >0.25). Conclusion: The present study verifies and extends previous reports of little overall pharmacogenetic divergence across Latin America, although a number of markers display substantial differentiation.
Keywords: Latin American population; biogeographical ancestry; fixation index statistics; pharmacogenetic differentiation; population admixture.