Thursday, December 12, 2019

How Height Happens:

Height is all about the length of our bones. Many factors contribute to the height such as hormones and nutrition. Among the factors, there is also genetics. Harvard University researchers conducted functional tests and identified hundreds of genetic "switches" that influence height and demonstrated how one switch alters the function of a gene involved in the difference of height. The study involved 250,000 people and resulted in the finding of about 700 genetic regions associated with height. As each genetic region could contain tens of thousands of DNA variants, all linked together, the researchers narrowed the focus to the variants associated with cartilage growth plates of bones. This narrowed to 60,000 genetic variant switches in the DNA that caused nearby genes to turn on or off in the femurs of developing mice. Of those 60,000, 900 genetic variants were filtered that were involved in bone and cartilage development, and 83 new genetic variations in the human height.

I think studying height is meaningful to understand how many genes work together to influence height and more traits (epistasis). Studies of such can provide a better insight into the evolutionary dynamics of complex genetic systems. I think studying genetic variation will contribute much to personalized medicine in the future because much will be known about how genes function in the body. More studies on identifying similar genetic variations that may influence the risk of developing common diseases such as schizophrenia, cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease are in progress.


Article Publication: December 5, 2017, by Harvard University
Article Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171205115936.htm
Related Article: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/315620.php#1

1 comment:

  1. Funny how in the picture, this was how me and my brother was at one point and now he’s towering me. It’s also mind boggling how you can be taller than someone at some point in your life and then boom, their taller than you and your stuck at that same level. I noticed how I’m the shortest out of my household but my dads side of the family has given me this trait due to them being short as well. Safe to say my brother caught the y’all genes from my moms side of the family.

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