title: Holistic anthropological research of Hvar Islanders, Croatia--from parish registries to DNA studies in 33 years.
abstract: The complexity of interactions between hereditary, environmental and cultural factors in determining human phenotypes is often underestimated in biomedical research. In this paper, we present 33 years of holistic anthropological research that was being conducted since 1971 in the island of Hvar, Croatia. During this period, detailed characterization of migrations, demography, isonymy, linguistic differences, anthropometric traits (head and body dimensions), physiological (cardio-respiratory) properties, quantitative and qualitative dermatoglyphic traits, radiogrammetric metacarpal bone dimensions and genetic traits (classical antigens, HLA diversity, DNA short tandem repeat -STR, mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome polymorphisms) was performed. The analysis of this large collection of data using both model-bound and model-free approaches showed that the complexity underlying human biological traits may be considerably greater than generally assumed, which has important implications for design of future studies into genetic determinants of complex traits.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Anthropological Research, Zagreb, Croatia. pavao.rudan@inantro.hr
authors.forename: Pavao
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rudan
authors.forename: Branka
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Janićijević
authors.forename: Veljko
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Jovanović
authors.forename: Jasna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Milicić
authors.forename: Nina Smolej
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Narancić
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sujoldzić
authors.forename: Lajos
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Szirovicza
authors.forename: Tatjana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Skarić-Jurić
authors.forename: Lovorka Barać
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Lauc
authors.forename: Tomislav
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lauc
authors.forename: Irena Martinović
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Klarić
authors.forename: Marijana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pericić
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rudan
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rudan
mesh_terms: D000883:Anthropology / Q000379:methods; D017523:Croatia; D003469:Culture; D004777:Environment; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010641:Phenotype; D011157:Population Dynamics