Heritability in the genomics era--concepts and misconceptions.

Full Abstract

Heritability allows a comparison of the relative importance of genes and environment to the variation of traits within and across populations. The concept of heritability and its definition as an estimable, dimensionless population parameter was introduced by Sewall Wright and Ronald Fisher nearly a century ago. Despite continuous misunderstandings and controversies over its use and application, heritability remains key to the response to selection in evolutionary biology and agriculture, and to the prediction of disease risk in medicine. Recent reports of substantial heritability for gene expression and new estimation methods using marker data highlight the relevance of heritability in the genomics era.

Author information

Author/s: Visscher, Peter M (PM); Hill, William G (WG); Wray, Naomi R (NR);

Affiliation: Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Royal Brisbane Hospital Post Office, Brisbane 4029, Queensland, Australia. Peter.Visscher(-atsign-)qimr.edu.au

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Review

Journal: Nature reviews. Genetics (Nat Rev Genet), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Apr; vol 9 (issue 4) : pp 255-66

Dates: Created 2008/03/18; Completed 2008/03/27;

PMID: 18319743, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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