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Evidence of Inbreeding Depression on Human Height

Overview of attention for article published in PLoS Genetics, July 2012
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (97th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (96th percentile)

Mentioned by

blogs
1 blog
twitter
42 X users
facebook
2 Facebook pages
googleplus
1 Google+ user
reddit
1 Redditor

Citations

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83 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
237 Mendeley
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1 CiteULike
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Title
Evidence of Inbreeding Depression on Human Height
Published in
PLoS Genetics, July 2012
DOI 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002655
Pubmed ID
Authors

Ruth McQuillan, Niina Eklund, Nicola Pirastu, Maris Kuningas, Brian P. McEvoy, Tõnu Esko, Tanguy Corre, Gail Davies, Marika Kaakinen, Leo-Pekka Lyytikäinen, Kati Kristiansson, Aki S. Havulinna, Martin Gögele, Veronique Vitart, Albert Tenesa, Yurii Aulchenko, Caroline Hayward, Åsa Johansson, Mladen Boban, Sheila Ulivi, Antonietta Robino, Vesna Boraska, Wilmar Igl, Sarah H. Wild, Lina Zgaga, Najaf Amin, Evropi Theodoratou, Ozren Polašek, Giorgia Girotto, Lorna M. Lopez, Cinzia Sala, Jari Lahti, Tiina Laatikainen, Inga Prokopenko, Mart Kals, Jorma Viikari, Jian Yang, Anneli Pouta, Karol Estrada, Albert Hofman, Nelson Freimer, Nicholas G. Martin, Mika Kähönen, Lili Milani, Markku Heliövaara, Erkki Vartiainen, Katri Räikkönen, Corrado Masciullo, John M. Starr, Andrew A. Hicks, Laura Esposito, Ivana Kolčić, Susan M. Farrington, Ben Oostra, Tatijana Zemunik, Harry Campbell, Mirna Kirin, Marina Pehlic, Flavio Faletra, David Porteous, Giorgio Pistis, Elisabeth Widén, Veikko Salomaa, Seppo Koskinen, Krista Fischer, Terho Lehtimäki, Andrew Heath, Mark I. McCarthy, Fernando Rivadeneira, Grant W. Montgomery, Henning Tiemeier, Anna-Liisa Hartikainen, Pamela A. F. Madden, Pio d'Adamo, Nicholas D. Hastie, Ulf Gyllensten, Alan F. Wright, Cornelia M. van Duijn, Malcolm Dunlop, Igor Rudan, Paolo Gasparini, Peter P. Pramstaller, Ian J. Deary, Daniela Toniolo, Johan G. Eriksson, Antti Jula, Olli T. Raitakari, Andres Metspalu, Markus Perola, Marjo-Riitta Järvelin, André Uitterlinden, Peter M. Visscher, James F. Wilson

Abstract

Stature is a classical and highly heritable complex trait, with 80%-90% of variation explained by genetic factors. In recent years, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified many common additive variants influencing human height; however, little attention has been given to the potential role of recessive genetic effects. Here, we investigated genome-wide recessive effects by an analysis of inbreeding depression on adult height in over 35,000 people from 21 different population samples. We found a highly significant inverse association between height and genome-wide homozygosity, equivalent to a height reduction of up to 3 cm in the offspring of first cousins compared with the offspring of unrelated individuals, an effect which remained after controlling for the effects of socio-economic status, an important confounder (χ(2) = 83.89, df = 1; p = 5.2 × 10(-20)). There was, however, a high degree of heterogeneity among populations: whereas the direction of the effect was consistent across most population samples, the effect size differed significantly among populations. It is likely that this reflects true biological heterogeneity: whether or not an effect can be observed will depend on both the variance in homozygosity in the population and the chance inheritance of individual recessive genotypes. These results predict that multiple, rare, recessive variants influence human height. Although this exploratory work focuses on height alone, the methodology developed is generally applicable to heritable quantitative traits (QT), paving the way for an investigation into inbreeding effects, and therefore genetic architecture, on a range of QT of biomedical importance.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 42 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 237 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 4 2%
Netherlands 2 <1%
United Kingdom 2 <1%
France 1 <1%
Italy 1 <1%
India 1 <1%
Switzerland 1 <1%
Spain 1 <1%
Finland 1 <1%
Other 0 0%
Unknown 223 94%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 62 26%
Student > Ph. D. Student 39 16%
Professor 21 9%
Other 17 7%
Student > Bachelor 16 7%
Other 52 22%
Unknown 30 13%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 91 38%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 33 14%
Medicine and Dentistry 25 11%
Psychology 13 5%
Computer Science 11 5%
Other 25 11%
Unknown 39 16%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 42. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 23 November 2023.
All research outputs
#985,366
of 25,478,886 outputs
Outputs from PLoS Genetics
#697
of 8,972 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#5,099
of 178,287 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLoS Genetics
#7
of 186 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,478,886 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 96th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 8,972 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 17.8. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 178,287 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 186 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.