Height Is Only 40pc Hereditary - The Rest Is Nurture

凱倫

Parents worried that they may pass on their short stature totheir children can rest easy as a new study reveals nurture ismore important than nature when it comes to a persons height.

A landmark piece of research has found that more than12，000 genes are responsible for determining how tall a personbecomes， but this hereditary aspect is just 40 percent of the picture.

The other 60 percent is caused by nurture- based traits likeenvironment， upbringing and quality of life.

Analysis of more than 5.4 million people discovered the cul?pable chunks of DNA involved in height determination and foundthem to live in parts of the genome which are responsible for skel ?etal growth.

“Our study identified 12， 111 genetic markers — or single nu?cleotide polymorphisms （ SNPs）— associated with height in morethan five million individuals from participating studies， ”study au?thor Dr Eirini Marouli， associate professor in computational biolo ?gy at Queen Mary University of London， told The Telegraph.

“These explain 40 percent of height variation in individualsof European ancestries and between 10-20 percent in non-Euro?pean populations.”

But she added that genetics and its“complex manifesta?tion”are just one part of the explanation.

“Additional aspects could potentially include：advancementin healthcare， nutrition， lifestyle and environmental factors，”DrMarouli said.

The study， published in Nature， also predicted how tall aperson would become based on their genes alone and was foundto be more accurate than the current method which estimates achilds length by the height of their parents.

擔心自己的矮個子會遺傳給孩子的父母可 以放寬心了，因為新研究發現，對一個人的身高 而言，營養比遺傳更重要。

一項具有里程碑意義的研究發現，影響一個 人身高的基因超過 1.2 萬個，然而在決定身高上， 遺傳因素只占 40%。

另外 60%取決于環境、養育和生活質量等后 天特性。

這項研究在分析了逾 540 萬人的資料后發 現，決定身高的 DNA 片段存在于與骨骼生長有 關的部分基因組中。

該研究的作者、倫敦瑪麗女王大學計算生物 學副教授艾利尼 ·馬柔里博士告訴《每日電訊 報》：“我們的研究在500 多萬參與者中識別出了 12111 個與身高有關的基因標記（單核苷酸多態 性）。”

“這些基因標記解釋了歐洲血統者身高差異 的 40%以及非歐洲血統者身高差異的 10-20%。”

但是她也指出，基因與其“復雜表現”只能解 釋其中一部分。

馬柔里博士稱：“其他可能影響身高的方面 包括：醫療進步、營養、生活方式和環境因素。”

這項發表在《自然》上的研究還單獨根據基 因預測了一個人的身高，并發現這一預測結果比 根據父母身高預測孩子身高的現有方法更為準 確。

“Traditionally we use family history to predict a childs height， but this isnt a perfect method，”Dr Marouli ex? plained.

“For example， its not very accurate in predicting height differences such as those amongst siblings.”

“Using single nucleotide polymorphisms （ SNPs） ， or markers of changes in our DNA， could have the potential to give a more accurate prediction.”

“This more accurate height prediction could be useful in healthcare. For example， if a child does not reach their pre? dicted height， it could indicate that there might be an underly? ing condition that might be affecting growth， for example， re? lated to hormonal deficiencies.”

“When we combined all the identified genetic variants together into our best polygenic score along with the parental height average that led to an accuracy of more than 54 per? cent.”

“Thus， having a prediction based on genetic changes could potentially provide more accuracy.”

馬柔里博士解釋道：“傳統上我們用家族史來預測孩子的身高，但這個方法并不理想。”

“例如，用這種方法來預測兄弟姐妹的身高差異就不是很準確。”

“通過觀測單核苷酸多態性或基因標記的變化則可能會給出更準確的預測結果。”

“提高身高預測的準確性對于醫療保健很有用。舉例來說，如果一個孩子沒有達到預期身高，則可能意味著存在影響長高的潛在因素，比如激素缺乏。”

“如果我們把識別出的所有基因變量與最佳的多基因評分相結合，再綜合考慮父母的平均身高，對孩子身高的預測準確度則可以提高到54%以上。”

“因此，根據基因變量來做出的身高預測可能會更準確。”