My husband is
short and so am I. Sometimes, an individual will pick a partner that resembles
him/herself in various traits (assortative mating). The authors of this paper, Imprint of Assortative Mating on the Human Genome,
apply a novel method to detect assortative mating in the human genome. They determined
genetic predictors of various traits from SNPs on even-numbered and
odd-numbered chromosomes and then computed the correlation between the
predictors on the even-numbered chromosomes and odd-numbered chromosomes (θ).
The authors present genetic evidence that humans engage in assortative mating
for at least two traits: height and level of education.
Correlations between Mates for Genetic
Predictors of Height & Level of Education
The authors
reasoned that after many generations of assortative mating, the population
would reach an equilibrium in which rm = ~2θ.
x-axis
– estimate of θ, measurement of assortative mating in parental generation
y-axis
– estimate of rm, measurement of assortative mating in current
generation
Elaine Miller - Potluck 2/4/2020
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