Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
14624724
TITLE
Heritability of adult body height: a comparative study of twin cohorts in eight countries.
ABSTRACT
A major component of variation in body height is due to genetic differences, but environmental factors have a substantial contributory effect. In this study we aimed to analyse whether the genetic architecture of body height varies between affluent western societies. We analysed twin data from eight countries comprising 30,111 complete twin pairs by using the univariate genetic model of the Mx statistical package. Body height and zygosity were self-reported in seven populations and measured directly in one population. We found that there was substantial variation in mean body height between countries; body height was least in Italy (177 cm in men and 163 cm in women) and greatest in the Netherlands (184 cm and 171 cm, respectively). In men there was no corresponding variation in heritability of body height, heritability estimates ranging from 0.87 to 0.93 in populations under an additive genes/unique environment (AE) model. Among women the heritability estimates were generally lower than among men with greater variation between countries, ranging from 0.68 to 0.84 when an additive genes/shared environment/unique environment (ACE) model was used. In four populations where an AE model fit equally well or better, heritability ranged from 0.89 to 0.93. This difference between the sexes was mainly due to the effect of the shared environmental component of variance, which appears to be more important among women than among men in our study populations. Our results indicate that, in general, there are only minor differences in the genetic architecture of height between affluent Caucasian populations, especially among men.
DATE PUBLISHED
2003 Oct
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 2003/11/20 05:00
medline 2004/01/21 05:00
entrez 2003/11/20 05:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Silventoinen K Silventoinen Karri K Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Sammalisto S Sammalisto Sampo S
Perola M Perola Markus M
Boomsma DI Boomsma Dorret I DI
Cornes BK Cornes Belinda K BK
Davis C Davis Chayna C
Dunkel L Dunkel Leo L
De Lange M De Lange Marlies M
Harris JR Harris Jennifer R JR
Hjelmborg JV Hjelmborg Jacob V B JV
Luciano M Luciano Michelle M
Martin NG Martin Nicholas G NG
Mortensen J Mortensen Jakob J
Nisticò L Nisticò Lorenza L
Pedersen NL Pedersen Nancy L NL
Skytthe A Skytthe Axel A
Spector TD Spector Tim D TD
Stazi MA Stazi Maria Antonietta MA
Willemsen G Willemsen Gonneke G
Kaprio J Kaprio Jaakko J
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 6
ISSUE: 5
TITLE: Twin research : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies
ISOABBREVIATION: Twin Res
YEAR: 2003
MONTH: Oct
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 1369-0523
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Twin Res
COUNTRY: Australia
ISSNLINKING: 1369-0523
NLMUNIQUEID: 9815819
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Comparative Study
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
AA 00145 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
AA 08315 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adult
Australia
Body Height genetics
Denmark genetics
Female genetics
Finland genetics
Great Britain genetics
Humans genetics
Italy genetics
Male genetics
Models, Genetic genetics
Netherlands genetics
Norway genetics
Sweden genetics
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's