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Heritability of fluctuating asymmetry in a human twin sample: The effect of trait aggregation
Author(s) -
Johnson Wendy,
Gangestad Steven W.,
Segal Nancy L.,
Bouchard Thomas J.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.20788
Subject(s) - fluctuating asymmetry , heritability , trait , asymmetry , hum , biology , evolutionary biology , physics , quantum mechanics , performance art , computer science , art history , programming language , art
Fluctuating asymmetry is thought to reflect developmental instability, which may in turn indicate genetically influenced fitness. Controversy surrounding these claims has centered on the extent to which fluctuating asymmetry is heritable. Most studies have estimated its heritability to be very low using single‐trait measures. This study uses data from a human twin sample to demonstrate that the heritability estimate resulting from the aggregation of fluctuating asymmetry across multiple traits is non‐zero. This is the case even when the estimates of fluctuating asymmetries of the individual traits do not differ significantly from 0. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.