LD is often described as a “double-edged” sword: strong LD can be advantageous to identifying associations, but is it not useful when searching for the functional variants. Using populations with low amounts of LD can help fine map the functional variant (Rosenberg et al. 2010). Therefore, index associations that robustly associate with ECG traits in European descent populations but do not generalize to African descent populations could be prioritized for fine-mapping studies to identify the functional variant. Also, further large discovery and fine-mapping studies should be performed in African descent populations to identify additional ECG-trait associated loci not found in other populations.
