Parent-adult offspring correlations and heritability of body measurements in a rural Indian population

Abstract

Mean values and standard deviations of height, sitting height, body weight, biacromial and bicristal diameters, total arm length, upper arm and calf girths and skinfolds at biceps, triceps, below the scapula and at the widest portion of the calf of 67 fathers, 72 mothers and their 99 adult sons and 83 adult daughters belonging to Lewa Patels of rural Gujarat are presented. Sons and daughters showed significantly higher mean values of stature as compared to fathers and mothers respectively. Parent-offspring, sib-sib and midparent-offspring correlations for these measurements are also presented. Parent-offspring and midparent-offspring correlations varied for different body measurements; highest correlations were shown by longitudinal measurements, followed by transverse diameters and least by skinfold and girth measurements. Heritability of different body measurements as indicated by midparent-offspring regression also followed a similar pattern of variation. Using the recollection method, mean age at menarche of daughters was 14.7 +/- 0.16 years and that of their mothers 15.20 +/- 0.15 years. Mother-daughter correlation for age at menarche was 0.39.

Deleterious Effect of Late Menarche on Distal Tibia Microstructure in Healthy 20-Year-Old and Premenopausal Middle-Aged Women

“…(8)(9)(10)(11) Both pubertal timing (39) and peak bone mass (40,41) are under the strong influence of hereditable factors and can be moderately affected by common environmental determinants. (42) The hereditable component of pubertal timing was well identified by both twin (43)(44)(45)(46)(47) and mother-daughter relationship (48)(49)(50)(51)(52) studies. Our study both complements and furthers this notion by providing evidence that this familial relationship exists in premenopausal women and their daughters measured at the time of peak bone mass attainment.…”

Focused life history data and linear enamel hypoplasia to help explain intergenerational variation in relative leg length within Taiwanese families

“…While many studies suggest that secular increases in stature are predominately increases in leg length (Greulich, 1957;Udjus, 1964 as cited in Malina et al, 2004;Dangour et al, 2002;Fredriks et al, 2005;Malina et al, 2004;Meredith, 1978;Moore, 1970;Sanna and Sorro, 2000;Tanner et al, 1982;Vercauteren et al, 1998), results from other studies are not entirely consistent or easily interpreted with available information (Greulich, 1976;Himes, 1979;Kaur and Singh, 1981;Kromeyer-Hauschild and Jaeger, 2000;Leung et al, 1996;Malina et al, 2004;Sanna and Soro, 2000). Several studies have reported gains in mean height but no increases in mean relative leg length in either sex (Greulich, 1976;Kaur and Singh, 1981;Kromeyer-Hauschild and Jaeger, 2000). Others have reported significant increases for males, but not females (Himes, 1979;Malina et al, 2004), and at least one study reports noticeably greater increases in relative leg length among females, but not males (Leung et al, 1996).…”

“…In comparisons of cross-sectional values from age groups prior to growth completion, reductions in stunting may be difficult to distinguish from increases in maturational tempo (Hauspie et al, 1996). However, even where skeletal growth is likely to have been complete in most or all participants, studies have not consistently found increases in leg length greater than those for sitting height (Greulich, 1976;Himes, 1979;Kaur and Singh, 1981;Leung et al, 1996;Malina et al, 2004).…”

A Genome-Wide Scan for Loci Affecting Normal Adult Height in the Framingham Heart Study

“…Adult height, or stature, is an ideal quantitative phenotype that is well suited for linkage analysis: it is measured easily and reliably, and is highly heritable with h 2 values ranging from 0.4 to 0.8 [1][2][3][4][5]. Height usually follows a normal distribution and is thought to be polygenic in nature.…”