Genetic influence on within-person longitudinal change in anthropometric traits in the UK Biobank

Kathryn E. Kemper (), Julia Sidorenko, Huanwei Wang, Ben J. Hayes, Naomi R. Wray, Loic Yengo, Matthew C. Keller, Michael Goddard and Peter M. Visscher ()
Additional contact information
Kathryn E. Kemper: University of Queensland
Julia Sidorenko: University of Queensland
Huanwei Wang: University of Queensland
Ben J. Hayes: University of Queensland
Naomi R. Wray: University of Queensland
Loic Yengo: University of Queensland
Matthew C. Keller: University of Colorado
Michael Goddard: University of Melbourne
Peter M. Visscher: University of Queensland

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract The causes of temporal fluctuations in adult traits are poorly understood. Here, we investigate the genetic determinants of within-person trait variability of 8 repeatedly measured anthropometric traits in 50,117 individuals from the UK Biobank. We found that within-person (non-directional) variability had a SNP-based heritability of 2–5% for height, sitting height, body mass index (BMI) and weight (P $$\le$$ ≤ 2.4 × 10−3). We also analysed longitudinal trait change and show a loss of both average height and weight beyond about 70 years of age. A variant tracking the Alzheimer’s risk APOE- $${{{{{\mathcal{E}}}}}}4$$ E 4 allele (rs429358) was significantly associated with weight loss ( $$\beta$$ β = −0.047 kg per yr, s.e. 0.007, P = 2.2 × 10−11), and using 2-sample Mendelian Randomisation we detected a relationship consistent with causality between decreased lumbar spine bone mineral density and height loss (bxy = 0.011, s.e. 0.003, P = 3.5 × 10−4). Finally, population-level variance quantitative trait loci (vQTL) were consistent with within-person variability for several traits, indicating an overlap between trait variability assessed at the population or individual level. Our findings help elucidate the genetic influence on trait-change within an individual and highlight disease risks associated with these changes.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47802-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-47802-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47802-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().