Height Is Only 40pc Hereditary - The Rest Is Nurture

Parents worried that they may pass on their short stature totheir children can rest easy as a new study reveals nurture ismore important than nature when it comes to a person’s height.

A landmark piece of research has found that more than12，000 genes are responsible for determining how tall a personbecomes， but this hereditary aspect is just 40 percent of the picture.

The other 60 percent is caused by nurture- based traits likeenvironment， upbringing and quality of life.

Analysis of more than 5.4 million people discovered the cul⁃pable chunks of DNA involved in height determination and foundthem to live in parts of the genome which are responsible for skel ⁃etal growth.

“Our study identified 12， 111 genetic markers — or single nu⁃cleotide polymorphisms （ SNPs）— associated with height in morethan five million individuals from participating studies， ”study au⁃thor Dr Eirini Marouli， associate professor in computational biolo ⁃gy at Queen Mary University of London， told The Telegraph.

“These explain 40 percent of height variation in individualsof European ancestries and between 10-20 percent in non-Euro?pean populations.”

But she added that genetics and its“complex manifesta⁃tion”are just one part of the explanation.

“Additional aspects could potentially include：advancementin healthcare， nutrition， lifestyle and environmental factors，”DrMarouli said.

The study， published in Nature， also predicted how tall aperson would become based on their genes alone and was foundto be more accurate than the current method which estimates achild’s length by the height of their parents.

担心自己的矮个子会遗传给孩子的父母可 以放宽心了，因为新研究发现，对一个人的身高 而言，营养比遗传更重要。（剩余1659字）

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