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bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.10.09.758080

A versatile set of computational tools for inference of genetic ancestry from human molecular data

Belleau, P.·Li, X.·Deschenes, A.·Marrah, L.·Krasnitz, A.
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Abstract

Molecular properties of human diseases and conditions often exhibit dependence on the genetic ancestry of the donor. In order to make more human molecular data available for ancestry-informed research, we developed a set of software tools termed Robust Ancestry Inference using Data Synthesis (RAIDS) for inference of genetic ancestry from sequence data that pose challenges to genotyping. Here we describe a recent expansion and refinement of RAIDS, applicable to nucleic-acid sequence data resultant from a broad range of experimental strategies. These strategies currently include whole-genome, whole-exome, and targeted gene panel sequencing, RNA-Seq, including single-cell RNA-Seq, chromatin-accessibility (ATAC-Seq), and protein-binding (ChIP-Seq) assays. RAIDS inferential tools perform robustly in the presence of somatic nucleic-acid alterations caused by cancer and under the conditions of extreme non-uniformity of sequence read coverage, yielding both global ancestry and ancestral admixtures of the donor. RAIDS is available as an eponymous Bioconductor package.

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Belleau, P., Li, X., Deschenes, A., Marrah, L., Krasnitz, A.. 2026-10-13. A versatile set of computational tools for inference of genetic ancestry from human molecular data. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.10.09.758080

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