The 1000 Chinese Pangenome empowers medical and population genetics

, constrained by small sample sizes, provide limited utility for medical and population genetic applications. Here we generated 1,116 diploid genome assemblies (55 de novo and 1,061 pangenome-informed) with an average size of 2.98 Gb and a mean quality value of 46 as part of the 1000 Chinese Pangenome (1KCP) project. On the basis of these assemblies, we constructed a pangenome comprising 405.3 million base pairs of sequences absent from the current references GRCh38 and CHM13, including 26.2 million base pairs of functional genic and predicted regulatory elements. We catalogued a full spectrum of genetic variation, including 35.4 million small variants, 110,530 structural variants (SVs), 485,575 tandem repeats (TRs) and 0.86 million nested variants embedded in non-reference sequences. This extensive dataset enabled detailed characterization of multiscale genic variations relevant to medical genetics, including gene-altering SVs, TR expansions, gene cluster variations and HLA gene haplotypes. Coupled with the 1KCP gene expression data, we conducted pan-variant expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) mapping to analyse diverse variant types. We identified 3,256 eQTLs involving complex variants (SVs, TRs and nested variants) and elucidated their regulatory complexity. Finally, we developed a 1KCP pan-variant imputation reference panel, which provides multitype genetic markers to enhance the resolution of future association studies. This resource advances our understanding of complex variants and their functional implications to provide new insights into human health.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature
Published
2026-04-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10315-y
Primary Topic
Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

The 1000 Chinese Pangenome empowers medical and population genetics

Wenjie Wei, Weiyang Bai, Zhongqu Duan, Wenhao Chen et al.
Nature
Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
article

The 1000 Chinese Pangenome empowers medical and population genetics

Wenjie Wei, Weiyang Bai, Zhongqu Duan, Wenhao Chen, Mingfei Lu, Chen D. Lu, Zhiyi Wang, Zhibin Wang, Baoqing Li, Junren Hou, Minmin Guo, Xiwei Sun, Wen Yang, Xian Shen, Yujie Cao, Yazhou Guo, Yi Ding, Dandan Shi
article en

Abstract

, constrained by small sample sizes, provide limited utility for medical and population genetic applications. Here we generated 1,116 diploid genome assemblies (55 de novo and 1,061 pangenome-informed) with an average size of 2.98 Gb and a mean quality value of 46 as part of the 1000 Chinese Pangenome (1KCP) project. On the basis of these assemblies, we constructed a pangenome comprising 405.3 million base pairs of sequences absent from the current references GRCh38 and CHM13, including 26.2 million base pairs of functional genic and predicted regulatory elements. We catalogued a full spectrum of genetic variation, including 35.4 million small variants, 110,530 structural variants (SVs), 485,575 tandem repeats (TRs) and 0.86 million nested variants embedded in non-reference sequences. This extensive dataset enabled detailed characterization of multiscale genic variations relevant to medical genetics, including gene-altering SVs, TR expansions, gene cluster variations and HLA gene haplotypes. Coupled with the 1KCP gene expression data, we conducted pan-variant expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) mapping to analyse diverse variant types. We identified 3,256 eQTLs involving complex variants (SVs, TRs and nested variants) and elucidated their regulatory complexity. Finally, we developed a 1KCP pan-variant imputation reference panel, which provides multitype genetic markers to enhance the resolution of future association studies. This resource advances our understanding of complex variants and their functional implications to provide new insights into human health.

Nature
Capital Medical University (CN), Wenzhou Medical University (CN), First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University (CN), Westlake University (CN), Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health (CN), Second Affiliated Hospital & Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University (CN), China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CN), Wenzhou Institute of Technology Testing & Calibration (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Partnerships for the goals
Openalex Percentile: Top 32%
Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
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