Genome-wide genetic homogeneity between sexes and populations for human height and body mass index.
Sex-specific genetic effects have been proposed to be an important source of variation for human complex traits. Here we use two distinct genome-wide methods to estimate the autosomal genetic correlation (rg) between men and women for human height and body mass index (BMI), using individual-level (n = ∼44 000) and summary-level (n = ∼133 000) data from genome-wide association studies. Results are consistent and show that the between-sex genetic correlation is not significantly different from unity for both traits. In contrast, we find evidence of genetic heterogeneity between sexes for waist-hip ratio (rg = ∼0.7) and between populations for BMI (rg = ∼0.9 between Europe and the USA) but not for height. The lack of evidence for substantial genetic heterogeneity for body size is consistent with empirical findings across traits and species.
Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia, The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, The Translation Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD 4102, Australia, jian.yang@uq.edu.au.
Jian
J
Yang
Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Andrew
A
Bakshi
Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Zhihong
Z
Zhu
Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia, MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU) at the University of Bristol, School of Social and Community Medicine, Bristol BS8 1TH, UK.
Gibran
G
Hemani
Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Anna A E
AA
Vinkhuyzen
Department of Epidemiology.
Ilja M
IM
Nolte
Department of Epidemiology, Department of Endocrinology and.
Jana V
JV
van Vliet-Ostaptchouk
Department of Epidemiology.
Harold
H
Snieder
Estonian Genome Center, University of Tartu, Tartu 51006, Estonia, Division of Endocrinology, Boston Children's Hospital, Cambridge, MA 02141, USA, Program in Medical and Populational Genetics, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA 02242, USA, Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Tonu
T
Esko
Estonian Genome Center, University of Tartu, Tartu 51006, Estonia.
Lili
L
Milani
Estonian Genome Center, University of Tartu, Tartu 51006, Estonia.
Reedik
R
Mägi
Estonian Genome Center, University of Tartu, Tartu 51006, Estonia, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Tartu 51010, Estonia.
Andres
A
Metspalu
Cardiovascular Genetics and Genomics Group, Atherosclerosis Research Unit, Department of Medicine Solna and.
Anders
A
Hamsten
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden.
Patrik K E
PK
Magnusson
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden.
Nancy L
NL
Pedersen
Molecular Epidemiology and Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden and Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Erik
E
Ingelsson
Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia, The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, The Translation Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD 4102, Australia.
Peter M
PM
Visscher
D001827:Body Height / Q000235:genetics; D015992:Body Mass Index; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio