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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Peter Visscher and colleagues examine the genetic architecture of body mass index (BMI) and height using a within-family approach that uses
realized genetic sharing between 20,240 sibling pairs from 9,577 nuclear families (_Am. J. Hum. Genet._ doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2013.10.005, 31 October 2013). They calculate identity by descent
(IBD) for each sibling pair using ∼20,000 SNPs in linkage equilibrium. They estimate the narrow-sense heritability for BMI at 0.42 (s.e.m. = 0.17) and for height at 0.69 (s.e.m. = 0.14), and
suggest that previous heritability estimates for BMI were likely overestimates. They find a positive correlation of partitioned genetic variance with chromosome size for both BMI and
height, consistent with a polygenic architecture. They perform a within-family linkage study for height and BMI and show increasing genomic inflation factors proportional to sample size.
Their simulations show that this linkage analysis is robust to population stratification as well as to genetic heterogeneity between cohorts. They further demonstrate that the observed data
are consistent with simulations assuming a polygenic architecture including both common and rare variation. They also suggest that polygenic architecture has contributed to failures to
replicate linkage studies. They estimate that 67% and 40% of variance for height and BMI, respectively, is captured by common SNPs. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your
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* Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support Authors * Orli Bahcall View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google
Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Bahcall, O. Polygenic architecture. _Nat Genet_ 45, 1417 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2839
Download citation * Published: 25 November 2013 * Issue Date: December 2013 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2839 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to
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