The growth chart of the child on the solid line transitioned from infancy to childhood at age 9 months, while the growth chart of the child on the dotted line transitioned at age 20 months. The difference in their height at age 3 is 10 cm (about 4 inches). No differences between them are shown within the actual stages of either infancy or childhood, only in the timing of the transition between phases. The new discovery shows that this delay is affected only by environmental conditions, and not by genetic factors<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nLed by Professor Ze’ev Hochberg and Dr. Alina German, of the Technion\u2019s Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, the team found that while genetics do have a significant effect on a person\u2019s height, so, too, do environmental elements that include the environment in the womb, nutrition and health status in the first year of life, parents and family structure, and economic and emotional events.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing the genetics revolution, today it is customary to attribute our personal traits to the genes,\u201d explains Prof. Hochberg. \u201cIndeed, there is no doubt that many of our features are genetic. However, as can be seen in our study, environmental conditions have a very significant role \u2013 around 50 percent \u2013 in determining growth and height.\u201d<\/p>\n
The range-difference between people who are tall or short is about 10 inches in men and 9 inches in women. Half of the variation is set at a decisive growth stage \u2013 when the child transits from infantile growth to childhood and the new study shows that this part is due only to environmental conditions before birth and during infancy. The researchers determined this phase transition in 162 sets of twins [56 pairs of identical twins (who have identical genes), 106 pairs of fraternal twins (who share only half their genes)], and 106 pairs of non-twin siblings, who also share half their genes.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudies on twins let us test the balance between genes and the environment,\u201d explains Prof. Hochberg. \u201cThe difference between identical and fraternal twins shows the impact of genetics. Here we discovered the remarkable power of the environment in shaping a person. This is called plasticity in human development, which means that environmental conditions such as mother and baby nutrition, social and family interactions, can influence our growth and height.\u201d<\/p>\n
From an evolutionary perspective, say the researchers, this plasticity helps \u2018shape\u2019 characteristics to suit future living conditions, which are ‘adaptively predicted’ based on current conditions. For example, \u201cchildren who are born into and grow up in a malnourished environment \u00a0will be shorter, and therefore require less food as they get older, while children born into a well-nourished environment will grow to be tall,\u201d says Prof. Hochberg.<\/p>\n
The research team also included Prof. Zvi Livshitz, Dr. Ida Malkin and Dr. Inga Peter from Tel Aviv University; Dr. Yonatan Dubnov and Dr. Hana Akones from Haifa\u2019s Regional Health Office, and Dr. Michael Shmoish of the Lorry I. Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering at the Technion.<\/p>\n
For further details: Gil Lainer \u2013 058-6882208, Doron Shaham \u2013 050-3109088.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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