Lack of evidence for a major gene in the Mendelian transmission of BMI in Chinese.
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.
Liu
Peng-Yuan
PY
Laboratory of Molecular and Statistical Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, People's Republic of China.
Li
Yu-Mei
YM
Li
Miao-Xin
MX
Malkin
Ida
I
Qin
Yue-Juan
YJ
Chen
Xiang-Ding
XD
Liu
Yong-Jun
YJ
Deng
Hong-Wen
HW
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