Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday May 19 2018, @11:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the jockeys-v.-basketball-players dept.

Hundreds of genes influence how tall a person is, but most make an imperceptible difference—perhaps a millimeter, for example. Now, a group studying the genetics of Peruvians, one of the world's shortest populations, has turned up a gene variant that cuts a person's height by more than 2 centimeters, on average. "It's amazing that they saw such a change," says Emma Farley, a genomicist at the University of California, San Diego. "It's quite a large effect."

Geneticists have diligently pursued genes for height; a 2014 analysis called GIANT examined 250,000 people. "That you can still pull out new players is very exciting," says Elaine Ostrander, a geneticist at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. "It speaks to the value of looking at isolated populations." So far, the gene variant is not known outside Peru, where the demands of living at high altitude may have driven its evolution, but it could offer clues about how other mutations influence height.

Postdoc Samira Asgari and Soumya Raychaudhuri's team, all at Harvard Medical School in Boston, originally wanted to know how a person's DNA influences the severity of tuberculosis. Together with epidemiologist Megan Murray's team at Partners in Health in Lima, they collected genetic information from 4002 residents there, along with other data including height. Peruvians are among the shortest people in the world, with men averaging 165 centimeters and women reaching about 153 centimeters—in both cases about 10 centimeters shorter than average people in the United States and 15 centimeters shorter than the Dutch, generally regarded as among the world's tallest people. So the team decided to search the DNA data for genetic factors underlying this short stature.


Original Submission

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday May 19 2018, @03:55PM (4 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 19 2018, @03:55PM (#681589) Journal

    Granted, I've not met a lot of Peruvians, but those I have met seemed to be real close to average height among Americans. http://chartsbin.com/view/38919 [chartsbin.com] So, Peruvians range from 1.66 to 1.7 meters. And, Americans range from 1.78 to 1.84 meters. Lemme do the math, and change that to 'Murican system.

    Adult male Peruvians range from 5ft 5in to 5ft 7in, on average.
    Adult male 'Muricans range from 5ft 10in to 6ft and a fraction less than half an inch.

    If all that be true, then I've not met any "average" Peruvians. The shortest I've met is probably ~5'7", and the tallest that I've met was about 6'. My surgeon is about 5'10".

    All anecdotal of course, but I'm wondering how and why I've only met Peruvians who are taller than average. I'm not bothering with the numbers for Peruvian females. All that I've met seemed similar to the males in regards to height - that is, MAYBE just a LITTLE bit shorter than Ms. Average American.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday May 19 2018, @04:11PM (3 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday May 19 2018, @04:11PM (#681593) Journal

      Were the Peruvians you met immigrants or born in America?

      I think one of the major factors in determining height is the introduction of milk into the diet. As diets around the world are Westernizing in many cases, you see average heights shooting up by several inches:

      https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/07/27/487391773/americans-are-shrinking-while-chinese-and-koreans-sprout-up [npr.org]

      South Korea is also a lot richer than it used to be.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday May 19 2018, @04:48PM (1 child)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 19 2018, @04:48PM (#681606) Journal

        Some were born in Peru, others in the US. I'd have to go back, and ask questions to figure out which were which. I'm certain of my surgeon though - he attended medical school in Peru before moving here to further his education.

        Had the article been about Vietnamese being short, I would have gone right along with that. Pretty much all Vietnamese that I have met are short, in comparison to the US. Ditto for Tagalog, from the Philippines.

        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @08:23PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @08:23PM (#681652)

          Maybe it's about economic resources during youth (when most of the growth is happening)? Richer Peruvians immigrate to the US, and are taller than the peasants back home.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @10:50PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @10:50PM (#681696)

        There's tons of factors that effect height. Fetal imprinting, illness (autoimmune or contracted) The endocrine system is known to not only stunt growth physically, but mentally as well; in exposure to traumatic stress. Early childhood care can also effect it. The amount of testosterone a male produces during puberty. It's not exclusive to diet, it's a product of innumerable lifestyle changes over time.

(1)