title: Heritabilities of facial measurements and their latent factors in korean families.
abstract: Genetic studies on facial morphology targeting healthy populations are fundamental in understanding the specific genetic influences involved; yet, most studies to date, if not all, have been focused on congenital diseases accompanied by facial anomalies. To study the specific genetic cues determining facial morphology, we estimated familial correlations and heritabilities of 14 facial measurements and 3 latent factors inferred from a factor analysis in a subset of the Korean population. The study included a total of 229 individuals from 38 families. We evaluated a total of 14 facial measurements using 2D digital photographs. We performed factor analysis to infer common latent variables. The heritabilities of 13 facial measurements were statistically significant (p < 0.05) and ranged from 0.25 to 0.61. Of these, the heritability of intercanthal width in the orbital region was found to be the highest (h (2) = 0.61, SE = 0.14). Three factors (lower face portion, orbital region, and vertical length) were obtained through factor analysis, where the heritability values ranged from 0.45 to 0.55. The heritability values for each factor were higher than the mean heritability value of individual original measurements. We have confirmed the genetic influence on facial anthropometric traits and suggest a potential way to categorize and analyze the facial portions into different groups.
authors.affiliation: Genomic Medicine Institute, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul 110-799, Korea. ; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University Graduate School, Seoul 110-799, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun-Jin
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sun-Wha
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Im
authors.forename: Ganchimeg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jargal
authors.forename: Siwoo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jae-Hyuk
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.forename: Jeong-Yeon
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Joohon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.forename: Sung-Il
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Jong-Yeol
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jong-Il
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jeong-Sun
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Seo
keywords: facial bones; genetic research; statistical factor analysis