Genome-wide association study reveals sex-specific genetic architecture of facial attractiveness

Bowen Hu, Ning Shen, James J Li, Hyunseung Kang, Jinkuk Hong, Jason Fletcher, Jan Greenberg, Marsha R Mailick and Qiongshi Lu

PLOS Genetics, 2019, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: Facial attractiveness is a complex human trait of great interest in both academia and industry. Literature on sociological and phenotypic factors associated with facial attractiveness is rich, but its genetic basis is poorly understood. In this paper, we conducted a genome-wide association study to discover genetic variants associated with facial attractiveness using 4,383 samples in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. We identified two genome-wide significant loci, highlighted a handful of candidate genes, and demonstrated enrichment for heritability in human tissues involved in reproduction and hormone synthesis. Additionally, facial attractiveness showed strong and negative genetic correlations with BMI in females and with blood lipids in males. Our analysis also suggested sex-specific selection pressure on variants associated with lower male attractiveness. These results revealed sex-specific genetic architecture of facial attractiveness and provided fundamental new insights into its genetic basis.Author summary: Facial attractiveness is a complex human trait well integrated into people’s daily life experience with profound influence on human behavior. Despite being widely studied in sociology, psychology, and related fields, its genetic basis remains poorly understood. Using carefully-measured facial attractiveness and dense genotyping data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, we identified novel genes for facial attractiveness, assessed the selection signature, and dissected the shared genetic architecture between facial attractiveness and various human traits. Interestingly, sex-specific genetic architecture of facial attractiveness was a recurrent pattern observed in almost all our analyses. Our results provided new insights into the genetic basis of facial attractiveness and have broad implications for the complex relationships between attractiveness and various human traits.

Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pgen00:1007973

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1007973

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