Quantitative genetics of human morphology and obesity-related phenotypes in nuclear families from the Greater Bilbao (Spain): Comparison with other populations

Abstract

Background: It is well established that variation of soft-tissue traits is less influenced by the genetic component than skeletal traits. However, it is still unclear whether heritabilities (h2) of obesity-related phenotypes present a common pattern across populations.Aim: To estimate familial resemblance and heritability of body size, shape and composition phenotypes and to compare these results with those from other populations.Subjects and methods: The subject group consisted of 533 nuclear families living in Greater Bilbao and included 1702 individuals aged 2–61 years. Familial correlations and h2 were estimated for 29 anthropometric phenotypes (19 simple measures, three derived factors, four obesity indices and the three Heath-Carter somatotype components) using MAN and SOLAR programmes.Results: All phenotypes were influenced by additive genetic factors with narrow sense heritabilities ranging from 0.28–0.69. In general, skeletal traits exhibited the highest h2, whereas phenotypes defining the amount of adipose tissue, particularly central fat, were less determined by genetic factors.Conclusions: Familial correlations and heritability estimates of body morphology and composition from the Greater Bilbao sample were within the range observed in other studies. The lower heritability detected for central fat has also been found in some other populations, but further investigations in different populations using the same anthropometric traits and estimation methods are needed in order to obtain more robust conclusions.