NDLI: The Unreliability of High Human Heritability Estimates and Small Shared Effects of Growing Up in the Same Family

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The Unreliability of High Human Heritability Estimates and Small Shared Effects of Growing Up in the Same Family

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Taylor, Peter J.
Copyright Year	2008
Abstract	Estimates of a trait’s heritability can be used to predict the advance through selective breeding in agriculture and the laboratory where researchers can replicate varieties and locations. These conditions do not apply to human populations, yet considerable attention is still given to high heritability and to small effects of family members growing up together relative to differences within families. This article shows that the conventional partitioning of a trait’s variation produces components that cannot be associated reliably with average differences among varieties and locations (“genotypes” and “environments”), let alone underwrite hypotheses about measurable genetic and environmental influences.The critique is conceptual and methodological. It begins with agricultural trials in which varieties are raised in multiple replicates in one or more locations. The estimation of heritability and the relative size of shared versus nonshared environmental effects are examined in this ideal situation. Key shortcomings arise from: inattention to the average differences among variety-location combinations (“genotype-environment interaction”); the assumption that, all other things being equal, fraternal twins are half as similar as identical twins; and interpreting unsystematic variation as non-shared environmental effects. It is difficult to remedy the shortcomings in the constrained circumstances of human quantitative genetic research, which centers on genealogically defined varieties (sets of twins or siblings) replicated as few as two times in one or two locations per variety. An adjustment for the first shortcoming takes previously cited human heritability estimates below the fractions of the total variation given by among-location-average variance (“shared environmental effects”) and variety-location-interaction variance. Further remarks are made on the agricultural-human distinction and selective breeding.
Starting Page	387
Ending Page	397
Page Count	11
File Format	PDF
ISSN	15555542
Journal	Biological Theory
Volume Number	2
Issue Number	4
e-ISSN	15555550
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2015-03-20
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Philosophy of Biology quantitative genetics shared environmental influences analysis of variance twin studies genotype-environment interaction selective breeding Evolutionary Biology Cognitive Psychology heritability
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics History and Philosophy of Science

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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