The role of nutrition and genetics as key determinants of the positive height trendP. Grasgruber, , J. Cacek, T. Kalina, M. Sebera
Although the documented differences in male stature in European nations can largely be explained by nutrition and other exogenous factors, it is remarkable that the picture in Fig. 1 strikingly resembles the distribution of Y haplogroup I-M170 (Fig. 10a). Apart from a regional anomaly in Sardinia (sub-branch I2a1a-M26), this male genetic lineage has two frequency peaks, from which one is located in Scandinavia and northern Germany (I1-M253 and I2a2-M436), and the second one in the Dinaric Alps in Bosnia and Herzegovina (I2a1b-M423).16 In other words, these are exactly the regions that are characterized by unusual tallness. The correlation between the frequency of I-M170 and male height in 43 European countries (including USA) is indeed highly statistically significant (r = 0.65; p < 0.001) ( Fig. 11a, Table 4). Furthermore, frequencies of Paleolithic Y haplogroups in Northeastern Europe are improbably low, being distorted by the genetic drift of N1c-M46, a paternal marker of Ugrofinian hunter-gatherers. After the exclusion of N1c-M46 from the genetic profile of the Baltic states and Finland, the r-value would further slightly rise to 0.67 (p < 0.001). These relationships strongly suggest that extraordinary predispositions for tallness were already present in the Upper Paleolithic groups that had once brought this lineage from the Near East to Europe.
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| Distribution of average male height in Europe. |
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| (a) Distribution of Y haplogroup I-M170 in Europe. (Rootsi et al. (2004).) (b) Distribution of Y haplogroup R1b-S116 in Europe. ( Myres et al. (2011). |
Although the documented differences in male stature in European nations can largely be explained by nutrition and other exogenous factors, it is remarkable that the picture in Fig. 1 strikingly resembles the distribution of Y haplogroup I-M170 (Fig. 10a). Apart from a regional anomaly in Sardinia (sub-branch I2a1a-M26), this male genetic lineage has two frequency peaks, from which one is located in Scandinavia and northern Germany (I1-M253 and I2a2-M436), and the second one in the Dinaric Alps in Bosnia and Herzegovina (I2a1b-M423).16 In other words, these are exactly the regions that are characterized by unusual tallness. The correlation between the frequency of I-M170 and male height in 43 European countries (including USA) is indeed highly statistically significant (r = 0.65; p < 0.001) ( Fig. 11a, Table 4). Furthermore, frequencies of Paleolithic Y haplogroups in Northeastern Europe are improbably low, being distorted by the genetic drift of N1c-M46, a paternal marker of Ugrofinian hunter-gatherers. After the exclusion of N1c-M46 from the genetic profile of the Baltic states and Finland, the r-value would further slightly rise to 0.67 (p < 0.001). These relationships strongly suggest that extraordinary predispositions for tallness were already present in the Upper Paleolithic groups that had once brought this lineage from the Near East to Europe.
