Sex-specific Genetic Effects in Physical Activity: Results from a Quantitative Genetic Analysis

Overview

Journal BMC Med Genet

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Genetics

Date 2015 Aug 2

PMID 26231751

Citations 10

Authors

Vincent P Diego

Raquel Nichele de Chaves

John Blangero

Michele Caroline de Souza

Daniel Santos

Thayse Natacha Gomes

Fernanda Karina Dos Santos

Rui Garganta

Peter T Katzmarzyk

Jose A R Maia

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The objective of this study is to present a model to estimate sex-specific genetic effects on physical activity (PA) levels and sedentary behaviour (SB) using three generation families.

Methods: The sample consisted of 100 families covering three generations from Portugal. PA and SB were assessed via the International Physical Activity Questionnaire short form (IPAQ-SF). Sex-specific effects were assessed by genotype-by-sex interaction (GSI) models and sex-specific heritabilities. GSI effects and heterogeneity were tested in the residual environmental variance. SPSS 17 and SOLAR v. 4.1 were used in all computations.

Results: The genetic component for PA and SB domains varied from low to moderate (11% to 46%), when analyzing both genders combined. We found GSI effects for vigorous PA (p = 0.02) and time spent watching television (WT) (p < 0.001) that showed significantly higher additive genetic variance estimates in males. The heterogeneity in the residual environmental variance was significant for moderate PA (p = 0.02), vigorous PA (p = 0.006) and total PA (p = 0.001). Sex-specific heritability estimates were significantly higher in males only for WT, with a male-to-female difference in heritability of 42.5 (95% confidence interval: 6.4, 70.4).

Conclusions: Low to moderate genetic effects on PA and SB traits were found. Results from the GSI model show that there are sex-specific effects in two phenotypes, VPA and WT with a stronger genetic influence in males.

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