The Cohort Description of Collaborative Project of Development of Anthropometrical Measures in Twins to Study Macro-Environmental Variation in Genetic and Environmental Effects on Anthropometric Traits
For over 100 years, the genetics of human anthropometric traits has attracted scientific interest. In particular, height and body mass index (BMI, calculated as kg/m2) have been under intensive genetic research. However, it is still largely unknown whether and how heritability estimates vary between human populations. Opportunities to address this question have increased recently because of the establishment of many new twin cohorts and the increasing accumulation of data in established twin cohorts. We started a new research project to analyze systematically (1) the variation of heritability estimates of height, BMI and their trajectories over the life course between birth cohorts, ethnicities and countries, and (2) to study the effects of birth-related factors, education and smoking on these anthropometric traits and whether these effects vary between twin cohorts. We identified 67 twin projects, including both monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins, using various sources. We asked for individual level data on height and weight including repeated measurements, birth related traits, background variables, education and smoking. By the end of 2014, 48 projects participated. Together, we have 893,458 height and weight measures (52% females) from 434,723 twin individuals, including 201,192 complete twin pairs (40% monozygotic, 40% same-sex dizygotic and 20% opposite-sex dizygotic) representing 22 countries. This project demonstrates that large-scale international twin studies are feasible and can promote the use of existing data for novel research purposes.
Silventoinen K, Jelenkovic A, Sund R, Honda C, Aaltonen S, Yokoyama Y, Tarnoki AD, Tarnoki DL, Ning F, Ji F, Pang Z, Ordoñana JR, Sánchez-Romera JF, Colodro-Conde L, Burt SA, Klump KL, Medland SE, Montgomery GW, Kandler C, McAdams TA, Eley TC, Gregory AM, Saudino KJ, Dubois L, Boivin M, Haworth CM, Plomin R, Öncel SY, Aliev F, Stazi MA, Fagnani C, D’Ippolito C, Craig JM, Saffery R, Siribaddana SH, Hotopf M, Sumathipala A, Spector T, Mangino M, Lachance G, Gatz M, Butler DA, Bayasgalan G, Narandalai D, Freitas DL, Maia JA, Harden KP, Tucker-Drob EM, Christensen K, Skytthe A, Kyvik KO, Hong C, Chong Y, Derom CA, Vlietinck RF, Loos RJ, Cozen W, Hwang AE, Mack TM, He M, Ding X, Chang B, Silberg JL, Eaves LJ, Maes HH, Cutler TL, Hopper JL, Aujard K, Magnusson PK, Pedersen NL, Aslan AK, Song YM, Yang S, Lee K, Baker LA, Tuvblad C, Bjerregaard-Andersen M, Beck-Nielsen H, Sodemann M, Heikkilä K, Tan Q, Zhang D, Swan GE, Krasnow R, Jang KL, Knafo-Noam A, Mankuta D, Abramson L, Lichtenstein P, Krueger RF, McGue M, Pahlen S, Tynelius P, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Corley RP, Huibregtse BM, Nelson TL, Whitfield KE, Franz CE, Kremen WS, Lyons MJ, Ooki S, Brandt I, Nilsen TS, Inui F, Watanabe M, Bartels M, van Beijsterveldt TC, Wardle J, Llewellyn CH, Fisher A, Rebato E, Martin NG, Iwatani Y, Hayakawa K, Rasmussen F, Sung J, Harris JR, Willemsen G, Busjahn A, Goldberg JH, Boomsma DI, Hur YM, Sørensen TI, Kaprio J. The CODATwins Project: The Cohort Description of Collaborative Project of Development of Anthropometrical Measures in Twins to Study Macro-Environmental Variation in Genetic and Environmental Effects on Anthropometric Traits. Twin Res Hum Genet. 2015 Aug;18(4):348-60. PMC4696543.