title: Lack of evidence for a major gene in the Mendelian transmission of BMI in Chinese.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the heritability of BMI and to examine the mode of inheritance of BMI variation in Chinese.
  
  
  METHODS
  Familial correlation and complex segregation analyses for BMI were undertaken in a Chinese sample composed of 392 nuclear families, with 1190 total individuals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A moderate heritability was found for BMI (h2 = 0.419-0.492). The obtained results do not support a major gene for BMI in our samples. BMI may be inherited in a complex and non-Mendelian manner in Chinese.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings of this study suggest that identification of specific genes for BMI in Chinese, at least within the same data set, is a serious challenge because of the lack of evidence of a major gene for BMI in our Chinese sample.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular and Statistical Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Peng-Yuan
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yu-Mei
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Miao-Xin
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ida
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Malkin
authors.forename: Yue-Juan
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Xiang-Ding
authors.initials: XD
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yong-Jun
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hong-Wen
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Deng
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002681:China; D020090:Chromosome Segregation; D005220:Fathers; D005260:Female; D040941:Heredity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers; D009679:Nuclear Family