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+--- Thread: Family tree of 400 million people shows genetics has limited influence on longevity (/thread-6372.html)
Family tree of 400 million people shows genetics has limited influence on longevity - C C - Nov 8, 2018
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181106104247.htm
EXCERPT: Although long life tends to run in families, genetics has far less influence on life span than previously thought, according to a new analysis of an aggregated set of family trees of more than 400 million people. The results suggest that the heritability of life span is well below past estimates, which failed to account for our tendency to select partners with similar traits to our own. [...] By correcting for these effects of assortative mating, the new analysis found life span heritability is likely no more than seven percent, perhaps even lower. [...] The research, from Calico Life Sciences and Ancestry, was published in GENETICS, a journal of the Genetics Society of America.
"We can potentially learn many things about the biology of aging from human genetics, but if the heritability of life span is low, it tempers our expectations about what types of things we can learn and how easy it will be," says lead author Graham Ruby. "It helps contextualize the questions that scientists studying aging can effectively ask."
MORE: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181106104247.htm
Journal Reference: Estimates of the Heritability of Human Longevity Are Substantially Inflated due to Assortative Mating
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