title: The impact of gene-environment interaction and correlation on the interpretation of heritability.
abstract: The presence of gene-environment statistical interaction (GxE) and correlation (rGE) in biological development has led both practitioners and philosophers of science to question the legitimacy of heritability estimates. The paper offers a novel approach to assess the impact of GxE and rGE on the way genetic and environmental causation can be partitioned. A probabilistic framework is developed, based on a quantitative genetic model that incorporates GxE and rGE, offering a rigorous way of interpreting heritability estimates. Specifically, given an estimate of heritability and the variance components associated with estimates of GxE and rGE, I arrive at a probabilistic account of the relative effect of genes and environment.
authors.affiliation: School of Philosophy and The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel. talomri@post.tau.ac.il
authors.forename: Omri
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Tal
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D016014:Linear Models; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D008957:Models, Genetic; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010641:Phenotype