The biomaterials currently available for this population are shown in the table below:

Population Description

Principal Investigators for Community Engagement and Sample Collection:
Charles Rotimi, Howard University, Washington, DC
Clement Adebamowo, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

These cell lines and DNA samples were prepared from blood samples collected in a particular community in Ibadan, Nigeria. All of the samples are from parent-adult child trios. All parents in the trios identified themselves as having four Yoruba grandparents.

It is important to include a reference to "Ibadan, Nigeria" when describing the source of these samples (and to use the abbreviation "YRI" where a shorthand designation is needed). Including the name of the city and the country where these samples were collected reinforces the point that the sample set, while in no way genetically "atypical", does not necessarily represent all Yoruba people, whose population history is complex. The population should not be described merely as "African", "Sub-Saharan African", "West African", or "Nigerian", since each of those designators encompasses many populations with different geographic ancestries.

It may be scientifically appropriate to pool data from these samples with data from other ancestrally related groups, when the data show that the groups have similar allele frequencies. If the groups all have African ancestry, the designation "African ancestry" (abbreviation: AFA) to describe the combined analysis panel is recommended. If only groups very closely related to the Yoruba have similar allele frequencies, then another abbreviation may need to be used.

Additional guidance about how to refer to the HapMap populations can be found at http://www.hapmap.org/citinghapmap.html.

Note that the adjective form is "Yoruba", as in "the Yoruba samples", not "Yoruban". The accent is on the first syllable (YOR-u-ba).

The Community Advisory Group (CAG) set up in the YRI community to monitor future uses of the YRI samples has established a website (http://www.westafricanbioethics.net/aba-alamu/).

Policies and Guidelines

• Guidelines for Referring to the HapMap Populations in Publications and Presentations
• Important Information for Investigators Who Order HapMap Samples
• Information Provided to HapMap Sample Donor Communities
• Secondary Distribution and Shared Use of Cell Cultures and DNA Samples