Newfoundland and Labrador: A mosaic founder population of an Irish and British diaspora from 300 years ago.

Abstract

The founder population of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) is a unique genetic resource, in part due to geographic and cultural isolation, where historical records describe a migration of European settlers primarily from Ireland and England to NL in the 18th and 19th centuries. Whilst its historical isolation, and increase prevalence of certain monogenic disorders, have been appreciated, the fine-scale genetic structure and ancestry of the population has not been well described. Understanding the genetic background on which functional, disease causing, genetic variation resides on would aid informed genetic mapping efforts in the Province. Here, we leverage dense genome-wide SNP data on 1,807 NL individuals to reveal fine-scale genetic structure in NL that is clustered around coastal communities and correlated with Christian denomination. We show that the majority of NL European ancestry can be traced back to the south-east and south-west of Ireland and England, respectively. We date a substantial population size bottleneck approximately 10-15 generations ago in NL, associated with increased haplotype sharing and autozygosity. Our results elucidate novel insights into the population history of NL and demonstrate evidence of a population conducive to further genetic studies and biomarker discovery. Significance StatementNewfoundland and Labrador (NL) has been identified as a founder population, though evidence of its magnitude and subsequent isolation is unclear. Here, analysis of 1,807 NL individuals demonstrates population structure associated with geographical isolation in coastal communities and religious denomination (Catholic or Protestant Christian). Further, NL European ancestry primarily descends from settlers from south-east Ireland and south-west England. This history is associated with increased sharing of longer haplotypes in NL, and NL-specific drift in some communities more than others, providing strong evidence of a founder event occurring about 10-15 generations ago. This study elucidates the detailed population structure of NL and shows enrichment for otherwise low frequency functional variants due to genetic drift useful for potential future biomarker discovery studies.