Colloquium papers: Heritability of reproductive fitness traits in a human population.

Abstract

The genetic basis of fitness traits has been studied widely in animals, yet the contribution of genetic variation to these traits in humans is controversial. In particular, it is difficult to disentangle genetic versus environmental effects on fertility, because of within-family correlations of sociocultural, economic, and other nongenetic factors that influence family sizes. In this study, we investigated the genetic architecture of reproductive fitness traits in a fertile human population whose communal lifestyle assures uniform and equal access to resources. Our study revealed significant heritabilities for reproductive traits in both men and women, after accounting for common household effects shared among siblings and demographic changes in reproductive practices. Furthermore, our results indicate that both autosomal and X-linked additive and dominance variances contribute to these traits. We therefore propose that reproductive traits should be amenable to genetic mapping studies, and the results we present here will facilitate the search for the novel genes influencing natural fertility in humans.