Estimating heritability without environmental bias

Young, A. I.; Frigge, M. L.; Gudbjartsson, D. F.; Thorleifsson, G.; Bjornsdottir, G.; Sulem, P.; Masson, G.; Thorsteinsdottir, U.; Stefansson, K.; Kong, A.

doi:10.1101/218883

bioRxiv · 10.1101/218883

Estimating heritability without environmental bias

Young, A. I.·Frigge, M. L.·Gudbjartsson, D. F.·Thorleifsson, G.·Bjornsdottir, G.·Sulem, P.·Masson, G.·Thorsteinsdottir, U.·Stefansson, K.·Kong, A.

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Abstract

Heritability measures the proportion of trait variation that is due to genetic inheritance. Measurement of heritability is of importance to the nature-versus-nurture debate. However, existing estimates of heritability could be biased by environmental effects. Here we introduce relatedness disequilibrium regression (RDR), a novel method for estimating heritability. RDR removes environmental bias by exploiting variation in relatedness due to random segregation. We use a sample of 54,888 Icelanders with both parents genotyped to estimate the heritability of 14 traits, including height (55.4%, S.E. 4.4%) and educational attainment (17.0%, S.E. 9.4%). Our results suggest that some other estimates of heritability could be inflated by environmental effects.

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Young, A. I., Frigge, M. L., Gudbjartsson, D. F., Thorleifsson, G., Bjornsdottir, G., Sulem, P., Masson, G., Thorsteinsdottir, U., Stefansson, K., Kong, A.. 2017-11-14. Estimating heritability without environmental bias. https://doi.org/10.1101/218883

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