Research Yields New Insights On The Genetics Of Height

The study examined data from genome-wide association studies of human height, which have identified numerous height-associated regions in the human genome, and assessed the expression of these genetic regions in different layers of the growth plate, or areas of new bone growth during childhood. “Our results point to genes expressed in earlier stages of chondrocyte differentiation as most influencing human height,” Nora Renthal, MD, PhD, of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Reference: “Genes with specificity for expression in the round cell layer of the growth plate are enriched in genomewide association study (GWAS) of human height” by Nora E. Renthal, Priyanka Nakka, John M. Baronas, Henry M. Kronenberg and Joel N. Hirschhorn, 3 August 2021, Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.DOI: 10.1002/jbmr.4408