Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Facial Morphological Variation: A 3D Population-Based Twin Study.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Facial phenotype is influenced by genes and environment; however, little is known about their relative contributions to normal facial morphology. The aim of this study was to assess the relative genetic and environmental contributions to facial morphological variation using a three-dimensional (3D) population-based approach and the classical twin study design.

Materials and methods

3D facial images of 1380 female twins from the TwinsUK Registry database were used. All faces were landmarked, by manually placing 37 landmark points, and Procrustes registered. Three groups of traits were extracted and analysed: 19 principal components (uPC) and 23 principal components (sPC), derived from the unscaled and scaled landmark configurations respectively, and 1275 linear d

SUBMITTER: Djordjevic J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5008732 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature