What is the definition of the population described in a SNP report?
A “population” is submitted and defined by a submitter, which means that the submitter provides a population ID (an abbreviation) as well as a description of the population, therefore, “populations” are not curated by dbSNP. Please note that genotype data also have populations, but the “population with frequency data” designation is only for populations that have allele frequency submissions, and these do not include genotype submissions. You can see how major contributors to dbSNP define their populations by going to the “Search/View Population Detail” page and type in the submitter handles “Perelgen” and “CSHL-HapMap” in the search text box located in the grey search section and clicking the “Search” box directly below.
