A Gene Variant Partly Explains Why Peruvians are Among the World’s Shortest People

     In this article, a common variant in DNA is found to reduce certain people’s height by about 2 centimeters. Just like the man above in the picture walking in the ancient Incan Village of Ollantaytambo, Peruvians are some of the world’s shortest people as a population, and versions of this gene can partly explain why. There is about 4,00 common variation in DNA that are known to affect height but the gene variant found in 5 percent of their population reduces height by 2.2 centimeters. Those who carry a copy of the gene from both parents are on average 4.4 centimeters shorter than the average height. According to a Nature report by Asgari S. et al,  the variant located in a gene known as fibrillin 1, which produces a protein involved in forming bone, connective tissues, skin, and other tissues. I found this article interesting because in this research we can view that natural selection favored the short-stature variant in the Peruvians, even though the reason why is unknown.

Links:

1. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2302-0.epdf?sharing_token=Wb_Wg88n8nu3Kxufs8RgiNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0M85gaiwfRPwY7yXIaD7pMmVSDBrGPtTpt753owXHEtPQDGIRBKBDM3qhtvLKO2r4nldXnUjHt4aRd7i5VWK7ts32GdbL1k4xI7E1N70NG2CQ4PzPWGxqfbCoDjfYmO4vnNIc2VDTsUKaetWcG6XH3k4s5a5BLXK-V8EPO11i902IjH_UEu3DKj8eZ1f68R2hs%3D&tracking_referrer=www.sciencenews.org

2. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/gene-variant-height-peruvians-short