Indirect assortative mating for human disease and longevity.

ABSTRACT: Phenotypic correlations among partners for traits such as longevity or late-onset disease have been found to be comparable to phenotypic correlations in first-degree relatives. How these correlations arise in late life is poorly understood. Here we introduce a novel paradigm to establish the presence of indirect assortment on factors correlated across generations, by examining correlations between parents of couples, i.e., in-laws. Using correlations in additive genetic values we further corroborate the presence of indirect assortment on heritable factors. Specifically, using couples from the UK Biobank cohort, we show that longevity and disease history of the parents of White British couples are correlated, with correlations of up to 0.09. The correlations in parental longevity are replic

SUBMITTER: Rawlik K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6781106 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature