A major gene model of adult height is suggested in Chinese.
Adult height (stature), as a complex quantitative trait, has been studied in different populations. However, few genetic studies on height were performed on the Chinese, the largest population in the world. In this study, familial correlation and segregation analyses were carried out for adult height in a Chinese sample composed of 385 nuclear families with a total of 1,169 informative individuals. The results suggest that a major gene with a recessive effect accounts for about 17.2% of the total adult height variation in the Chinese. Significant familial residual effects are found. The heritability (+/-SE) of height is estimated to be 0.647 (+/-0.122). This study, for the first time, provides evidence for the high degree of genetic determination of adult height in the Chinese population and furnishes a valuable reference for further mapping and identification of adult height genes in the Chinese.
Laboratory of Molecular and Statistical Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, 410081, China.
Miao-Xin
MX
Li
Osteoporosis Research Center, Creighton University Medical Center, 601 N. 30th Street, Suite 6787, Omaha, NE, 68131, USA.
Peng-Yuan
PY
Liu
Laboratory of Molecular and Statistical Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, 410081, China.
Yu-Mei
YM
Li
Center for Preventing and Treating Osteoporosis, Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai, 200233, China.
Yue-Juan
YJ
Qin
Osteoporosis Research Center, Creighton University Medical Center, 601 N. 30th Street, Suite 6787, Omaha, NE, 68131, USA.
Yao-Zhong
YZ
Liu
Laboratory of Molecular and Statistical Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, 410081, China. deng@creighton.edu.|Osteoporosis Research Center, Creighton University Medical Center, 601 N. 30th Street, Suite 6787, Omaha, NE, 68131, USA. deng@creighton.edu.
Hong-Wen
HW
Deng
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001827:Body Height / Q000235:genetics*; D002681:China; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008957:Models, Genetic; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009679:Nuclear Family; D012984:Software