Genetic study Autosomal ancestry and male founder events explain variation in male height across 60 Caucasian populations

[Tautalus]

Abstract
Backgroud

Modern genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have shown that research into the genetic determinants of human height is complicated by the highly polygenic nature of height and the strong role of environmental confounders at the individual level. The purpose of the current article was to provide an ecological (country-level) alternative to these studies and to examine geographical associations of genetic factors (25 Y haplogroups, 15 autosomal ancestry components) with the current height of young men in 60 genetically interconnected Caucasian populations of Europe, the Near East, and North Africa.​

Results

This ecological analysis shows that Y haplogroups or their combinations often match almost perfectly the geographical occurrence of a particular autosomal ancestry (correlation coefficients reaching up to r = 0.99), demonstrating that male founder events played a crucial role in shaping population history. Male height adjusted for the main environmental factors (nutrition, child mortality, total fertility) is positively correlated mainly with the Western Balkan Y haplogroup I2a-P37.2, which is associated with local Paleo-Balkan ancestry formed during the Bronze Age. Five other Y haplogroups typical of Northern and Northeastern Europe (I1, N, Q, R1a, R1b-U106) also predict above-average statures. These six Y haplogroups are historically connected with the major European ancestry components Villabruna or Yamnaya, which emerge as the most significant predictors of tallness at the autosomal level. On the other hand, height has the most negative relationship with the three Y haplogroups typical of contemporary Arab populations (E1b-M123, J1, T) and with their autosomal counterpart, the Natufian component of the prehistoric Levant. Of further note is the fact that country-level relationships between height and ancestry components show both concordance and irreconcilable discrepancies with genetic studies using individual-level relationships.​

Conclusions

This study provides many compelling results regarding the relationship between male founder events and height, the causality of which can often be supported by already documented findings. Others offer hypotheses that could be tested by more sophisticated research. The incompatibility of some individual-level and country-level data points to the existence of biases in the genetic research of human height in Europe resulting from a one-sided focus on Western European populations.​

Autosomal ancestry and male founder events explain variation in male height across 60 Caucasian populations - Human Genomics

Modern genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have shown that research into the genetic determinants of human height is complicated by the highly polygenic

link.springer.com

The preprint can be found here.

Geographical distribution of European Y haplogroups most strongly correlating with male height.

Geographical distribution of autosomal ancestry components according to the k = 7 model

 

[Tautalus]

A population being taller on average does not mean individuals with a given haplogroup are taller.
Height is driven by thousands of autosomal variants, not paternal lineage markers. The Y haplogroup is a tag, not a gene for height. For example, when Yamnaya expanded a small number of men fathered many descendants. Those men carried a specific Y haplogroup and a whole autosomal genome enriched for height-increasing variants. So, what’s transmitted is autosomal height alleles. The Y haplogroup just came along for the ride and merely marks that ancestry.
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[MOESAN]

In a clannic society where by hazard (at first) high stature autosomes and an Y-haplo are associated, this association could be maintained a relatively long time by the high social/political classes selecting a Y homogenous lineage along with high statures considered as more or less effective symbols of strentgh (in warlike societies) whatever the females origins. Evidently it's biased and the correlation Y-haplo/height is an illusion, some new high stature autosomes having been adopted from foreign pop's without any link with the Y haplo core population of origin, and this explains the more or less apparent discrepancies here and there. Maybe I'm not clear enough? ATW this "correlation" occur only in certain cultures at certain times and is not permanent by itself.