{"doi":"10.17615/1g42-fx24","title":"Population genetic differentiation of height and body mass index across Europe","abstract":"Across-nation differences in the mean of complex traits such as obesity and stature are common1–8, but the reasons for these differences are not known. Here, we find evidence that many independent loci of small effect combine to create population genetic differences in height and body mass index (BMI) in a sample of 9,416 individuals across 14 European countries. Using discovery data on over 250,000 individuals and unbiased estimates of effect sizes from 17,500 sib pairs, we estimate that 24% (95% CI: 9%, 41%) and 8% (95% CI: 4%, 16%) of the captured additive genetic variance for height and BMI across Europe are attributed to among-population genetic differences. Population genetic divergence differed significantly from that expected under a null model (P <3.94e−08 for height and P<5.95e−04 for BMI), and we find an among-population genetic correlation for tall and slender nations (r = −0.80 (95% CI: −0.95, −0.60), contrasting no genetic correlation between height and BMI within populations (r = −0.016, 95% CI: −0.041, 0.001), consistent with selection on height genes that also act to reduce BMI. Observations of mean height across nations correlated with the predicted genetic means for height (r = 0.51, P<0.001), so that a proportion of observed differences in height within Europe reflect genetic factors. In contrast, observed mean BMI did not correlate with the genetic estimates (P<0.58), implying that genetic differentiation in BMI is masked by environmental differences across Europe.","journal":"UNC Libraries","year":2020,"id":139408,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9352,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":5308,"name":"Peter M. Visscher","orcid":"0000-0002-2143-8760","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:17:10.185988Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}