@article {8884, title = {Directional dominance on stature and cognition in~diverse human populations.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {523}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jul 23}, pages = {459-62}, abstract = {

Homozygosity has long been associated with rare, often devastating, Mendelian disorders, and Darwin was one of the first to recognize that inbreeding reduces evolutionary fitness. However, the effect of the more distant parental relatedness that is common in modern human populations is less well understood. Genomic data now allow us to investigate the effects of homozygosity on traits of public health importance by observing contiguous homozygous segments (runs of homozygosity), which are inferred to be homozygous along their complete length. Given the low levels of genome-wide homozygosity prevalent in most human populations, information is required on very large numbers of people to provide sufficient power. Here we use runs of homozygosity to study 16 health-related quantitative traits in 354,224 individuals from 102 cohorts, and find statistically significant associations between summed runs~of homozygosity and four complex traits: height, forced expiratory lung volume in one second, general cognitive ability and educational attainment (P < 1 {\texttimes} 10(-300), 2.1 {\texttimes} 10(-6), 2.5 {\texttimes} 10(-10) and 1.8 {\texttimes} 10(-10), respectively). In each case, increased homozygosity was associated with decreased trait value, equivalent to the offspring of first cousins being 1.2 cm shorter and having 10 months{\textquoteright} less education. Similar effect sizes were found across four continental groups and populations with different degrees of genome-wide homozygosity, providing evidence that homozygosity, rather than confounding, directly contributes to phenotypic variance. Contrary to earlier reports in substantially smaller samples, no evidence was seen of an influence of genome-wide homozygosity on blood pressure and low density lipoprotein cholesterol, or ten other cardio-metabolic traits. Since directional dominance is predicted for traits under directional evolutionary selection, this study provides evidence that increased stature and cognitive function have been positively selected in human evolution, whereas many important risk factors for late-onset complex diseases may not have been.

}, keywords = {Biological Evolution, Blood pressure, Body Height, Cholesterol, Cognitive Ability, Cohort Studies, Education, Female, Forced Expiratory Volume, Genome, Homozygote, Humans, Lung Volume Measurements, Male, Phenotype}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature14618}, author = {Joshi, Peter K and T{\~o}nu Esko and Mattsson, Hannele and Eklund, Niina and Gandin, Ilaria and Nutile, Teresa and Jackson, Anne U and Schurmann, Claudia and Albert Vernon Smith and Zhang, Weihua and Okada, Yukinori and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Jessica Faul and Wei Zhao and Traci M Bartz and Maria Pina Concas and Franceschini, Nora and Enroth, Stefan and Vitart, Veronique and Trompet, Stella and Guo, Xiuqing and Daniel I Chasman and Jeff O{\textquoteright}Connell and Corre, Tanguy and Nongmaithem, Suraj S and Chen, Yuning and Mangino, Massimo and Ruggiero, Daniela and Traglia, Michela and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Kacprowski, Tim and Bjonnes, Andrew and van der Spek, Ashley and Wu, Ying and Giri, Anil K and Yanek, Lisa R and Wang, Lihua and Edith Hofer and Cornelius A Rietveld and McLeod, Olga and Marilyn C Cornelis and Pattaro, Cristian and Verweij, Niek and Baumbach, Clemens and Abdel Abdellaoui and Warren, Helen R and Vuckovic, Dragana and Mei, Hao and Bouchard, Claude and Perry, John R B and Cappellani, Stefania and Saira S Mirza and Benton, Miles C and Broeckel, Ulrich and Sarah E Medland and Penelope A Lind and Malerba, Giovanni and Alexander W Drong and Yengo, Loic and Bielak, Lawrence F and Zhi, Degui and van der Most, Peter J and Daniel Shriner and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Hemani, Gibran and Karaderi, Tugce and Wang, Zhaoming and Tian Liu and Demuth, Ilja and Jing Hua Zhao and Meng, Weihua and Lataniotis, Lazaros and van der Laan, Sander W and Bradfield, Jonathan P and Andrew R Wood and Bonnefond, Amelie and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Hall, Leanne M and Salvi, Erika and Yazar, Seyhan and Carstensen, Lisbeth and de Haan, Hugoline G and Abney, Mark and Afzal, Uzma and Matthew A. Allison and Amin, Najaf and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Bakker, Stephan J L and Barr, R Graham and Baumeister, Sebastian E and Daniel J. Benjamin and Bergmann, Sven and Boerwinkle, Eric and Erwin P Bottinger and Campbell, Archie and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chan, Yingleong and Chanock, Stephen J and Chen, Constance and Yii-Der I Chen and Collins, Francis S and Connell, John and Correa, Adolfo and Cupples, L Adrienne and Gail Davies and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Georg B Ehret and Ellis, Stephen B and Feenstra, Bjarke and Feitosa, Mary F and Ford, Ian and Caroline S Fox and Timothy M Frayling and Friedrich, Nele and Geller, Frank and Scotland, Generation and Gillham-Nasenya, Irina and Gottesman, Omri and Graff, Misa and Grodstein, Francine and Gu, Charles and Haley, Chris and Hammond, Christopher J and Sarah E Harris and Tamara B Harris and Nicholas D Hastie and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Heikkil{\"a}, Kauko and Lynne J Hocking and Homuth, Georg and Jouke-Jan Hottenga and Huang, Jinyan and Huffman, Jennifer E and Hysi, Pirro G and Mohammed Arfan Ikram and Ingelsson, Erik and Joensuu, Anni and Johansson, {\r A}sa and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jukema, J Wouter and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kanoni, Stavroula and Kerr, Shona M and Khan, Nazir M and Philipp D Koellinger and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kooner, Manraj K and Kubo, Michiaki and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lahti, Jari and Lenore J Launer and Lea, Rodney A and Lehne, Benjamin and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and David C Liewald and Lars Lind and Loh, Marie and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and London, Stephanie J and Loomis, Stephanie J and Loukola, Anu and Lu, Yingchang and Lumley, Thomas and Lundqvist, Annamari and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and Masciullo, Corrado and Matchan, Angela and Mathias, Rasika A and Matsuda, Koichi and Meigs, James B and Meisinger, Christa and Meitinger, Thomas and Menni, Cristina and Mentch, Frank D and Mihailov, Evelin and Lili Milani and Montasser, May E and Grant W Montgomery and Alanna C Morrison and Myers, Richard H and Nadukuru, Rajiv and Navarro, Pau and Nelis, Mari and Nieminen, Markku S and Ilja M Nolte and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Ogunniyi, Adesola and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Walter R Palmas and Pankow, James S and Patarcic, Inga and Pavani, Francesca and Peyser, Patricia A and Pietilainen, Kirsi and Neil Poulter and Prokopenko, Inga and Ralhan, Sarju and Redmond, Paul and Rich, Stephen S and Rissanen, Harri and Robino, Antonietta and Rose, Lynda M and Rose, Richard and Cinzia Felicita Sala and Babatunde Salako and Veikko Salomaa and Sarin, Antti-Pekka and Saxena, Richa and Schmidt, Helena and Scott, Laura J and Scott, William R and Sennblad, Bengt and Seshadri, Sudha and Peter Sever and Shrestha, Smeeta and Smith, Blair H and Jennifer A Smith and Soranzo, Nicole and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Southam, Lorraine and Stanton, Alice V and Stathopoulou, Maria G and Strauch, Konstantin and Strawbridge, Rona J and Suderman, Matthew J and Tandon, Nikhil and Tang, Sian-Tsun and Kent D Taylor and Bamidele O Tayo and T{\"o}glhofer, Anna Maria and Tomaszewski, Maciej and T{\v s}ernikova, Natalia and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Andr{\'e} G Uitterlinden and Vaidya, Dhananjay and van Hylckama Vlieg, Astrid and van Setten, Jessica and Vasankari, Tuula and Vedantam, Sailaja and Vlachopoulou, Efthymia and Vozzi, Diego and Vuoksimaa, Eero and Waldenberger, Melanie and Erin B Ware and Wentworth-Shields, William and Whitfield, John B and Sarah Wild and Gonneke Willemsen and Yajnik, Chittaranjan S and Yao, Jie and Zaza, Gianluigi and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Salem, Rany M and Melbye, Mads and Bisgaard, Hans and Nilesh J Samani and Cusi, Daniele and Mackey, David A and Cooper, Richard S and Froguel, Philippe and Pasterkamp, Gerard and Grant, Struan F A and Hakonarson, Hakon and Luigi Ferrucci and Scott, Robert A and Morris, Andrew D and Palmer, Colin N A and George Dedoussis and Deloukas, Panos and Bertram, Lars and Lindenberger, Ulman and Berndt, Sonja I and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Nicholas J Timpson and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Munroe, Patricia B and Thorkild I. A. S{\o}rensen and Charles N Rotimi and Donna K Arnett and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Sharon L R Kardia and Balkau, Beverley and Gambaro, Giovanni and Morris, Andrew P and Johan G Eriksson and Margaret J Wright and Nicholas G Martin and Hunt, Steven C and John M Starr and Ian J Deary and Griffiths, Lyn R and Henning Tiemeier and Nicola Pirastu and Kaprio, Jaakko and Wareham, Nicholas J and P{\'e}russe, Louis and Wilson, James G and Giorgia G Girotto and Caulfield, Mark J and Olli T Raitakari and Dorret I Boomsma and Gieger, Christian and van der Harst, Pim and Hicks, Andrew A and Kraft, Peter and Sinisalo, Juha and Knekt, Paul and Johannesson, Magnus and Patrik K E Magnusson and Hamsten, Anders and Schmidt, Reinhold and Ingrid B Borecki and Vartiainen, Erkki and Becker, Diane M and Bharadwaj, Dwaipayan and Mohlke, Karen L and Boehnke, Michael and Cornelia M van Duijn and Sanghera, Dharambir K and Teumer, Alexander and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Andres Metspalu and Paolo P. Gasparini and Ulivi, Sheila and Ober, Carole and Toniolo, Daniela and Rudan, Igor and David J Porteous and Ciullo, Marina and Timothy Spector and Caroline Hayward and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Ruth J F Loos and Alan F Wright and Chandak, Giriraj R and Vollenweider, Peter and Alan R Shuldiner and Ridker, Paul M and Rotter, Jerome I and Sattar, Naveed and Gyllensten, Ulf and Kari E North and Pirastu, Mario and Psaty, Bruce M and David R Weir and Laakso, Markku and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Takahashi, Atsushi and Chambers, John C and Kooner, Jaspal S and David P Strachan and Campbell, Harry and Joel N Hirschhron and Markus Perola and Polasek, Ozren and James F Wilson} }