Heritability estimates for somatic traits determined perinatally with the twin method

Publication date: Available online 20 April 2015 Source:HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology Author(s): Małgorzata Waszak , Krystyna Cieślik , Marzena Skrzypczak-Zielińska , Marlena Szalata , Karolina Wielgus , Joanna Kempiak , Grzegorz Bręborowicz , Ryszard Słomski The aim of this study was to establish estimates for heritability of somatic traits determined perinatally with the twin method. The studied material, including 1,263 twin pairs live-born at various stages of prenatal life, i.e. between the 22nd and 41st week of gestation, was collected at the Department of Perinatology and Gynecology, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, between 2002 and 2009. The zygosity of 821 pairs of same-sex twins was determined at the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics in Poznań using analysis of single and multiple nucleotide polymorphisms. The proportion of phenotypic variance explained by genetic variability was determined using heritability indices based on intrapair variances and correlations. Analysis of these indices revealed that genetic variability predominated over environmental variability in determining the phenotypic variance of all studied traits. Heritability was the highest for body weight and shoulder width. The high values of heritability coefficients documented in our study were to a certain extent associated with an inconsistency of the assumption on the additive effect of genetic and environmental effects. While analyzing the phenotypic varian...
Source: HOMO Journal of Comparative Human Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: research