| Title: | Genetic evidence of assortative mating in humans |
| Journal: | Nature Human Behaviour 2017 |
| Published: | 20 Nov 2019 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-016-0016 |
Publication 1823
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Abstract
Chances are, you're going to marry someone a lot like you. Similar intelligence, similar height, similar body weight. Several environmental factors may cause couples to resemble one another: Those from similar backgrounds share comparable upbringings and diets, people from the same geographic area may both exhibit that region's dominant physical attributes, and a shared life (such as experiencing the same hardships, income, healthcare, etc.) can be reflected in physical appearance. But it's also possible that people directly choose their mates based on visible, physical characteristics. This study investigated whether couples share regions of the genome that underlie a range of different characteristics, which tests whether mate choice is shaped by accidents of the environment, culture, or by actual preferences for genetically-based traits. To do this, we predicted an individual's height and body mass index (BMI) from genetic markers and compared this to their partner s actual height and BMI in more than 24,000 couples of European ancestry. We found a strong statistical correlation between people's genetic markers for height and the actual height of their partner. We also found a statistically significant, but weaker, correlation between people s genes for BMI and actual BMI in partners. This implies that people had actively chosen partners with similar genes to themselves. We also tested for assortative mating in other traits, such as years of education, in 7780 couples in the UK Biobank. We found concordance among partners in genetic markers previously linked to years of education, and found a remarkably high correlation. This doesn't mean that people choose mates based on actual years of education, but it likely implies that they select for similar interests, which are associated with level of education. These findings suggest that mate choice affects the genomic architecture of traits in humans.1 Author
- Robinson et al.
1 Application
| Application ID | Title |
|---|---|
| 12514 | The limits of predicting complex traits and diseases from genetic data |
Enabling scientific discoveries that improve human health