Height is not determined by a single gene but by the combination of many . Now, a new international investigation endorsed by more than 300 medical institutions has identified more than 400 genes that could influence the height of the human beings, number that is more than double the genes that have been discovered until now.
The study, which has been published in the journal Nature Genetics , is included in the macro study “Giant”, which aims to provide a solid answer to the genetic explanation of why there are people who are shorter or taller than others and also offer a model to investigate whether it is possible that by combining certain genes it is possible to determine the future appearance of some diseases.
” Height is determined almost entirely by genetics , but our previous studies had only been able to explain 10 percent of this genetic influence,” says Joel Hirschhorn, one of the study’s lead authors.
To achieve this finding, the scientists analyzed data from the genomes of a total of 253,288 people in addition to reviewing about two million common genetic variants, detecting a total of 627 variants in 424 different genetic regions, all of them related to height . This is the time when more genes have been related to this physical characteristic.
Among the findings, there have also been surprises . Experts have discovered, for example, that the mTOR gene , involved in cell growth, also appears among this group of genes related to height.
