Revisiting heritability accounting for shared environmental effects and maternal inheritance

Estimating heritability and shared environmental effects for refractive error in twin and family studies.

PURPOSE Twin studies have demonstrated a high heritability for refractive error of up to 90%, but some family studies have suggested up to one-third of population variance is attributable to the effects of shared family environment. This large twin study aimed to explore the role of shared environment in refractive error. METHODS Refractive error was measured using autorefraction in 4602 subj...

Autism: Genetic Heritability and Shared Environmental Factors (AGP)

Context Autism is considered the most heritable of neurodevelopmental disorders, mainly because of the large difference in concordance rates between monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Objective To provide rigorous quantitative estimates of genetic heritability of autism and the effects of shared environment. Design, Setting, and Participants Twin pairs with at least 1 twin with an autism spectrum...

Epigenetic inheritance and the missing heritability problem.

Epigenetic phenomena, and in particular heritable epigenetic changes, or transgenerational effects, are the subject of much discussion in the current literature. This article presents a model of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance and explores the effect of epigenetic inheritance on the risk and recurrence risk of a complex disease. The model assumes that epigenetic modifications of the ge...

Preweaning Survival in Swine: Heritability of Direct and Maternal Effects

Uncertain Inheritance: Transgenerational Effects of Environmental Exposures