By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It’s no secret that if your father and mother are high, you probably will be too high. But to fully understand the genetics of height has been an important scientific issue.
The researchers revealed on Sunday what they call the largest study of the subject so far, in which they analyzed the genomes of more than quarter of a million people to identify nearly 700 genetic variants and over 400 regions of the genome associated with height.
How high or low depends on a person 80 percent of the estimated genetic as the study, and nutrition and other factors account for other causes. The average height of the world’s population has increased due to improved nutrition.
“We looked up for two main reasons,” said Dr. Joel Hirschhorn, a geneticist and specializes in pediatric endocrine at Children’s Hospital Boston and the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University.
“For over a hundred years has been a great model for studying genetic diseases like obesity, diabetes and asthma are also caused by a combination of genes acting together. So understanding the functioning of genetics in height, can understand the genetics of diseases HUMAN (HUM.NY), “he said.
In addition, short stature during childhood is an important issue for endocrine specialized in pediatrics. Knowing the genes and important variations in height could help doctors diagnose children with a single underlying cause of his short stature, Hirschhorn said.
The international team of researchers analyzed data from the genomes of 253,288 people with European ancestors – all of Europe, North America and Australia. They read about 2 million common genetic variants in these individuals and identified 696 and 424 gene variants associated with height regions.
They located many genes in the study, published in Nature Genetics, which probably important regulators of skeletal growth but not previously believed were involved, investigators said.
Other related are collagen, components of bone and cartilage and growth plates, areas of growth tissue near the ends of the long bones.
The researchers say that there is still much to learn.
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