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Heritability allows a comparison of the relative importance of genes and environment to the variation of traits within and across populations. The concept of heritability and its definition as an estimable, dimensionless population parameter was introduced by Sewall Wright and Ronald Fisher nearly a century ago. Despite continuous misunderstandings and controversies over its use and application, heritability remains key to the response to selection in evolutionary biology and agriculture, and to the prediction of disease risk in medicine. Recent reports of substantial heritability for gene expression and new estimation methods using marker data highlight the relevance of heritability in the genomics era.

Original publication

DOI

10.1038/nrg2322

Type

Journal article

Journal

Nature reviews. Genetics

Publication Date

04/2008

Volume

9

Pages

255 - 266

Addresses

Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Royal Brisbane Hospital Post Office, Brisbane 4029, Queensland, Australia. Peter.Visscher@qimr.edu.au

Keywords

Animals, Humans, Analysis of Variance, Linear Models, Bayes Theorem, Regression Analysis, Inbreeding, Genomics, Gene Expression, Quantitative Trait, Heritable, Phenotype, Models, Genetic, Female, Male, Selection, Genetic, Biological Evolution