Genome-wide genetic homogeneity between sexes and populations for human height and body mass index
Open Access
- 22 October 2015
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Human Molecular Genetics
- Vol. 24 (25), 7445-7449
- https://doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddv443
Abstract
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.Keywords
Funding Information
- Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (APP1078037)
- Australian Research Council (DP130102666)
- Sylvia & Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation
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