• Question: Which gene controls the height of an animal?

    Asked by George to Carrie, Cedric, Ellen, Ines, Rupert on 10 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Carrie Ijichi

      Carrie Ijichi answered on 10 Mar 2017:

      There are usually several genes controlling for things and then they interact with the environment too. It’s not just as simple as the gene getting the final say – the world the animals grows up in get a big input too. So you might have the genes to be a tall person but then have really poor nutrition and you won’t grow as tall as you might have. Hope that makes sense!

    • Photo: Rupert Marshall

      Rupert Marshall answered on 10 Mar 2017:

      Lots of genes are linked to height. But even if someone has all the genes for being tall, they might still be quite short if their mother doesn’t get enough nutrients when they are a baby and if they don’t get a good diet once they are born. Access to good medicine is also important. In some countries the average height has gone up nearly 20cm in just 100 years! This picture shows the countries with the biggest changes. So if you want to be tall, eat healthy food and look after yourself 🙂

    • Photo: Ellen Williams

      Ellen Williams answered on 10 Mar 2017:

      Fantastic question! Height, in humans at least, is affected by lots and lots of genetic variations (except for in cases like dwarfism) so I would assume that similar things happen in different animals – different animals have different combinations of genes which affect the length of bones and connective tissues. In humans it is thought that height is 80% genetic and 20% environmental factors (such as food quality – which is probably why people in the olden days were so much shorter than today!)

      I stumbled upon this cool article about a study investigating human DNA samples to try and identify determinants of height: http://sciencenordic.com/scientists-discover-which-genes-determine-your-height

    • Photo: Ines Goncalves

      Ines Goncalves answered on 11 Mar 2017:

      Good question, and one to which I have no idea the answer. Several genes are involved in determining an individual’s height, and genetics is only just over half the story. Check this article explaining how maternal height only has a bout a 60% heritability and 65% of paternal heritability (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-much-of-human-height/).
      The rest is due to environmental variation, but to parental effects, such how much and how well the mother eats during pregnancy, as well as how well the offspring eats while growing up. That is part of the reason why parents are so persist that children finish their food before they can leave the table, kids don’t always want to eat and often decide they don’t like particular kinds of food without even trying them, yet, it is super important that children have a healthy and varied diet so they grow up properly and healthily.

    • Photo: Cedric Tan

      Cedric Tan answered on 12 Mar 2017:

      There are multiple genes that contribute to the resultant height. For example, the gene that controls for grown hormone controls to the rate of growth of an organism. Another gene that controls the diet is also important in controlling the nutrient uptake of an organism.

      Therefore many genes are involved!

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