How is height genetically determined

Hao, Y. Genome-wide association study in Han Chinese identifies three novel loci for human height. Lango Allen, H. Hundreds of variants clustered in genomic loci and biological pathways affect human height. Nature , — Identification, replication and fine-mapping of Loci associated with adult height in individuals of african ancestry.

Wood, A. Defining the role of common variation in the genomic and biological architecture of adult human height. Bozzoli, C. Adult height and childhood disease. Demography 46, — Steckel, R. Heights and human welfare: Recent developments and new directions. Explorations in Economic History 46, 1—23 Eveleth, P.

Worldwide variation in human growth Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Bogin, B. The growth of humanity Wiley-Liss, New York, Dubois, L. Genetic and environmental contributions to weight, height and BMI from birth to 19 years of age: an international study of over 12, twin pairs. PLoS One 7, e Mook-Kanamori, D. Heritability estimates of body size in fetal life and early childhood.

Genetic regulation of growth from birth to 18 years of age: the Swedish young male twins study. Genetic regulation of growth in height and weight from 3 to 12 years of age: a longitudinal study of Dutch twin children. Twin Res. Hur, Y. Genetic influences on the difference in variability of height, weight and body mass index between Caucasian and East Asian adolescent twins.

Lond 32, — Jelenkovic, A. Genetic and environmental influences on growth from late childhood to adulthood: a longitudinal study of two Finnish twin cohorts. Heritability of adult body height: a comparative study of twin cohorts in eight countries. Genetic and environmental influences on body size in early childhood: a twin birth-cohort study.

Estourgie-van Burk, G. Body size in five-year-old twins: heritability and comparison to singleton standards. Sex differences in genetic and environmental factors contributing to body-height. Phillips, D.

Twin studies in medical research: can they tell us whether diseases are genetically determined? Lancet , — Cole, T. The secular trend in human physical growth: a biological view.

Polderman, T. Meta-analysis of the heritability of human traits based on fifty years of twin studies. Yang, J. Genetic variance estimation with imputed variants finds negligible missing heritability for human height and body mass index. A novel common variant in DCST2 is associated with length in early life and height in adulthood. Aksglaede, L. Forty years trends in timing of pubertal growth spurt in , Danish school children.

PLoS One 3, e Hermanussen, M. Studying human growth and development ed Hermanussen, M. Schweizerbart Science Publishers, Stuttgart, Wehkalampi, K. Genetic and environmental influences on pubertal timing assessed by height growth. Bulik-Sullivan, B. An atlas of genetic correlations across human diseases and traits. Cousminer, D. Genome-wide association and longitudinal analyses reveal genetic loci linking pubertal height growth, pubertal timing and childhood adiposity.

Rao, E. Pseudoautosomal deletions encompassing a novel homeobox gene cause growth failure in idiopathic short stature and Turner syndrome. Ratcliffe, S. Growth during puberty in the XYY boy. Gudbjartsson, D. Many sequence variants affecting diversity of adult human height. Robinson, M.

Population genetic differentiation of height and body mass index across Europe. Fujiwara, S. Differences in health characteristics between native Japanese and Japanese-Americans. Cross Cult. Liu, Q. Zietsch, B. Variation in human mate choice: simultaneously investigating heritability, parental influence, sexual imprinting and assortative mating.

Joshi, P. Directional dominance on stature and cognition in diverse human populations. Neale, M. Methodology for genetic studies of twins and families Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boker, S. Psychometrika 76, — Purcell, S. Variance components models for gene-environment interaction in twin analysis. Download references. Wave 5 was supported by funding to Alice M. Gregory from Goldsmiths, University of London.

Anthropometric measurements of the Hungarian twins were supported by Medexpert Ltd. Buchwald, PI. Jacob v. Patrik K. Magnusson, Nancy L. Maria A. Wendy Cozen, Amie E. Jane Wardle, Clare H. Tom A. McAdams, Thalia C. Robert F. Margaret Gatz, Laura A. Meike Bartels, Toos C. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. All authors have commented the manuscript and read and approved the final version of the manuscript. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.

Reprints and Permissions. Sci Rep 6, Download citation. Received : 07 March Accepted : 02 June Published : 23 June Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:. Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative. Height is often inherited — but the precise genetics factors have long eluded researchers.

You need only to look at families to see that height is inherited — and studies of identical twins and families have long confirmed that suspicion.

Studies seeking the genes that govern height have identified hundreds of common gene variants linked to the trait. The case of the missing heritability. Now, a study suggests that most of the missing heritability for height and body mass index BMI can, as some researchers had suspected, be found in rarer gene variants that had lain undiscovered until now. To seek out the genetic factors that underlie diseases and traits, geneticists turn to mega-searches known as genome-wide association studies GWAS.

These scour the genomes of, typically, tens of thousands of people — or, increasingly, more than a million — for single-letter changes, or SNPs, in genes that commonly appear in individuals with a particular disease or that could explain a common trait such as height. But GWAS have limitations. In turn, these , common variants would have been found from sequencing the genomes of just a few hundred people, says Timothy Frayling, a human geneticist at the University of Exeter, UK.

They turned to whole-genome sequencing — performing a complete readout of all 6 billion bases — of 21, people. The authors declined to comment on the preprint, because it is under submission at a journal. They relied on the simple, but powerful, principle that all people are related to some extent — albeit distantly — and that DNA can be used to calculate degrees of relatedness.

As a result, the researchers captured genetic differences that occur in only 1 in , or even 1 in 5,, people. And by using information on both common and rare variants, the researchers arrived at roughly the same estimates of heritability as those indicated by twin studies.

Ensuring good nutrition during pregnancy is also important for the bone health and growth of the fetus. Sleep promotes growth and development in children and teenagers. During deep sleep, the body releases the hormones it needs to grow. Getting enough sleep may therefore allow optimal growth. Regular exercise is also important for normal physical development.

Playing outside or taking part in sports, for example, can make bones healthier, denser, and stronger. Babies and children grow continuously. This is due to changes in the growth plates in the long bones of their arms and legs. People grow the fastest in the first 9 months of life, before being born.

After birth, this slows down. Once a child is 8 years old, they will grow at an average of 2. After this, the growth plates stop making new bone, and the person will stop growing. The hands and feet stop growing first, then the arms and legs. The last area to stop growing is the spine. Scientists have identified more than different genes that determine height. Some of these genes affect the growth plates, and others affect the production of growth hormones. Normal height ranges are different for people from different ethnic backgrounds.

Again, this is determined by their DNA. Males tend to be taller than females. Males may also continue growing for longer than females. On average, an adult male is 5. Learn about what age girls stop growing and what age boys stop growing here. Once a person has been through puberty, the growth plates stop making new bone.