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Only five genes determine a person's face

23.09.2012

As researchers from the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, the UK and Australia reported in the journal PLoS Genetics, five genes have been identified that determine human facial features.

In identical twins, the faces are almost indistinguishable from each other. The faces of relatives, as a rule, are much more similar than the faces of people who are not related by family ties. All this tells us that genes play an important role in shaping a person's appearance. But what exactly is still unknown.

As part of a recent study conducted under the auspices of the Visible Trait Genetics Consortium (VisiGen), magnetic resonance images of the head were studied along with photographic portraits. To begin with, scientists mapped the "key points" of facial features and estimated the "external" distances between these points. The researchers then applied an approach known as the genome-wide association study (GWA), with independent replications, to find the types of DNA involved in facial features in nearly 10 people.

Three of the five genes found were previously found in other studies related to the development of the skull and face, as well as craniofacial diseases. One of these three genes was already mentioned as being responsible for facial morphology in a GWA study report published earlier this year that focused on children. The other two genes are new, previously unknown members of the molecular networks that shape facial features.

Professor Manfren Kaiser from the Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam (Holland), lead author of the study, said: "These exciting first results mark the beginning of understanding at the genetic level of human facial morphology. Perhaps someday we will be able to blindly draw a portrait of a person based solely on his "DNA. This could have interesting applications, for example, in legal proceedings. Already, we can determine the color of eyes or hair with fairly high accuracy from DNA."

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