Quantifying variations associated with dental caries reveals disparity in effect allele frequencies across diverse populations

Abstract

Background Dental caries (DC) is a multifaceted oral condition influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Recent advancements in genotyping and sequencing technologies, such as Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) have helped researchers to identify numerous genetic variants associated with DC, but their prevalence and significance across diverse global populations remain poorly understood as most of the studies were conducted in European populations, and very few were conducted in Asians specifically in Indians. Aim This study aimed to evaluate the genetic affinity of effect alleles associated with DC to understand the genetic relationship between global populations with respect to the Indian context. Methodology This present study used an empirical approach in which variants associated with DC susceptibility were selected. These variants were identified and annotated using the GWAS summary. The genetic affinity was evaluated using Fst. Results The effect of allele frequencies among different populations was examined, revealing variations in allele distribution. African populations exhibited higher frequencies of specific risk alleles, whereas East Asian and European populations displayed distinct profiles. South Asian populations showed a unique genetic cluster. Conclusion Our study emphasises the complex genetic landscape of DC and highlights the need for population-specific research as well as validation of GWAS-identified markers in Indians before defining them as established candidate genes.