Genetic mapping reveals complex traits draw more heritability from intergenic DNA
Schizophrenia, height, cholesterol. Each has its own genetic signature. That signature is made up of genetic variants: small differences in the DNA sequence that make one person's genome differ from another's. Some traits, such as the amount of cholesterol in the blood, are shaped by relatively few genetic variants. Other traits, such as schizophrenia, are shaped by many thousands of them, each…
A recent study has mapped the DNA regions responsible for the heritability of complex traits and disorders. Traits like schizophrenia exhibit many genetic variants, each contributing minimally to the trait. This polygenicity makes identifying the genomic location of heritability more challenging. Researchers at the University of Oslo found that as traits become more complex, the heritability is more likely to be found in the DNA between genes, rather than within the genes themselves.
This suggests that a significant portion of the genetic basis for psychiatric and cognitive conditions lies in parts of the genome that are less understood. The study, published in The American Journal of Human Genetics, showed that the more polygenic a trait is, the more of its heritability is located in intergenic DNA. Introns, the noncoding regions between genes, accounted for about half of the heritability in nearly every trait.
The findings suggest that sequencing the entire genome, rather than just the protein-coding regions, would be more beneficial for studying complex traits.
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