The Heritability Hang-Up

Feldman, M. W.; Lewontin, R. C.

doi:10.1126/science.1198102

Cited by 362 publications

(171 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…We agree with Feldman and Lewontin (1975) that behavioural genetics has suffered a "heritability hang-up" but do not see this as any grounds for dismissing human behaviour as a worthy object of genetical research. As the above analyses have shown, the concept of" heritability" plays only a subsidiary role in human psychogenetics.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Model-fitting approaches to the analysis of human behaviour

1978

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Model-fitting approaches to the analysis of human behaviour

1978

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“…This may be attributable to the differences in nutritional (i.e., undernutrition) and life-style factors besides the methodological differences. Since the heritability is a function of the trait, of the population, and of the environmental factors, it should be kept in mind that the heritability estimate for a given trait is specific to a given population (Feldman and Lewontin 1975;Sussane 1977;Falconer 1989). And, since additive genetic effects and environmental causes of variation differ among these caste populations, heritability estimate of a particular trait must be considered to refer to a particular caste population under particular conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heritability of Anthropometric Phenotypes in Caste Populations of Visakhapatnam, India

Arya¹,

Duggirala²,

Comuzzie³

et al. 2002

Human Biology

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In this study, we used anthropometric data from six Andhra caste populations to examine heritability patterns of 23 anthropometric phenotypes (linear, craniofacial, and soft tissue measures) with special reference to caste differences. We obtained anthropometric data from 342 nuclear families from Brahmin, Reddy, Telaga, Nagara, Ag. Kshatriya, and Mala castes of Visakhapatnam, India. These caste groups represent the existing hierarchical stratification of Indian populations. We used a variance components approach to determine the heritability (h 2 ) of these 23 anthropometric phenotypes (height, weight, BMI, etc.). The sample consisted of 1918 individuals ranging in age from 6 to 72 years (mean = 21.5, S.D. = 13.8). The heritabilities (h 2 ± S.E.) for all anthropometric traits for the entire sample were significant ( p < 0.0001) and varied from 0.25 ± 0.05 (BMI) to 0.61 ± 0.05 (bizygomatic breadth) after accounting for sex, age, and caste effects. Since data on socioeconomic and nutritional covariates were available for a subset of families, we repeated the genetic analyses using this subset, which has yielded higher heritabilities ranging from 0.21 ± 0.16 (head breadth) to 0.72 ± 0.18 (nasal breadth). In general, craniofacial measurements exhibited higher h 2 compared to linear measures. Breadth measurements and circumferences yielded more or less similar heritabilities. Age and sex effects were significant ( p < 0.0001) for most of the traits, while the effects of caste, socioeconomic status, and nutritional status were inconsistent across the traits. In conclusion, anthropometric phenotypes examined in this study are under appreciable additive genetic influences.Anthropometric phenotypes have been used to study the genetic structure of human populations (Relethford and Lees 1982;

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“…However, only a few of these studies have controlled for genotype-environment correlations (Smith & Dhondt, 1980;Dhondt, 1982;Alatalo & Lundberg, 1986;Alatalo & Gustafsson, 1988;Wiggins, 1989), even though such correlations are known to occur (James, 1983;James & NeSmith, 1988;Rhymer, 1992). The existence of genotype-environment correlation precludes the valid estimation of genotypic, environmental and interaction contributions to the phenotypic variance because in its presence it is impossible to tell how much of the phenotypic similarity among relatives is due to shared genes and how much to shared environment (Feldman & Lewontin, 1975;Falconer, 1989). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As heritability measures reflect the degree to which variation of a trait is under genetic influence (Falconer, 1989), the moderate to high heritabilities reported in these studies suggest ample opportunity for further evolution in avian morphology. However, the predictive value of these estimates depends greatly on the particular circumstances under which they are measured (van Noordwijk eta!., 1988;Alatalo eta!., 1990;Rauscher, 1992) and on the assumption that heritability estimates are not inflated as a result of environmental correlation between offspring and parents (Turner & Young, 1969;Feldman & Lewontin, 1975;Falconer, 1989). Environmental correlation among relatives arises from different frequency distributions of genotypes over environments (Falconer, 1989;Stearns, 1992).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foster parent experiment reveals no genotype-environment correlation in the external morphology of Ficedula albicollis, the collared flycatcher

Gustafsson

Merilä

1994

Heredity

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Heritabilities of quantitative traits have recently been estimated in several natural populations of birds. The predictive value of these estimates is based on the assumption that heritability estimates are not inflated by an environmental correlation between parent and offspring. We here show with a foster experiment that heritability estimates of seven morphological traits in the collared flycatcher are not inflated as a result of a genotype-environment correlation. Surprisingly, there was a negative foster parent-offspring relation in a poor environment. It is suggested that large foster parents have more difficulties raising offspring under poor environmental conditions than do small foster parents. Our experiment also provides evidence for a heritable basis of phenotypic variation in feather traits and that the morphology of the collared flycatcher could respond rapidly to selection.

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The Heritability Hang-Up

Cited by 362 publications

References 12 publications

Model-fitting approaches to the analysis of human behaviour

Model-fitting approaches to the analysis of human behaviour

Heritability of Anthropometric Phenotypes in Caste Populations of Visakhapatnam, India

Foster parent experiment reveals no genotype-environment correlation in the external morphology of Ficedula albicollis, the collared flycatcher

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