{"id":28048,"date":"2025-05-19T19:00:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T19:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=28048"},"modified":"2025-05-19T19:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T19:23:11","slug":"a-genetic-clue-to-why-men-are-taller-than-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=28048","title":{"rendered":"A Genetic Clue to Why Men Are Taller Than Women"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Researchers studied data from a million people and found evidence that a height gene shared by both sexes is amplified in men.<\/p>\n

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Men are taller than women, by an average of about five inches. But why? It\u2019s not a genetic inevitability \u2014 there are many species in the tree of life where females outclass males<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A new study, published on Monday<\/a> in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that involved genetic data from a million people, has found a partial explanation.<\/p>\n

It involves a gene called SHOX, which is known to be associated with height. SHOX is present on both the X chromosome \u2014 females have two X chromosomes \u2014 and the Y chromosome; males have one X and one Y.<\/p>\n

The researchers suspected that SHOX might explain differences in male and female height, but there was a problem with that hypothesis. Since SHOX is on both the X and Y chromosomes, it would need to have a different effect on each chromosome.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Does it, the researchers asked?<\/p>\n

To investigate the hypothesis, they asked if an extra Y chromosome boosted a person\u2019s height more than an extra X chromosome.<\/p>\n

There are rare conditions in which people are born with an extra X or an extra Y, or have a missing X or Y. To find people with these conditions, researchers plumbed data from three biobanks, or repositories of deidentified genetic and medical data from individuals. One biobank was from Britain, and the other two were from the United States.<\/p>\n

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Researchers studied data from a million people and found evidence that a height gene shared by both sexes is amplified in men.Men are taller than women, by an average of about five inches. But why? It\u2019s not a genetic inevitability \u2014 there are many species in the tree of life where females outclass males.A new study, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that involved genetic data from a million people, has found a partial explanation.It involves a gene called SHOX, which is known to be associated with height. SHOX is present on both the X chromosome \u2014 females have two X chromosomes \u2014 and the Y chromosome; males have one X and one Y.The researchers suspected that SHOX might explain differences in male and female height, but there was a problem with that hypothesis. Since SHOX is on both the X and Y chromosomes, it would need to have a different effect on each chromosome.Does it, the researchers asked?To investigate the hypothesis, they asked if an extra Y chromosome boosted a person\u2019s height more than an extra X chromosome.There are rare conditions in which people are born with an extra X or an extra Y, or have a missing X or Y. To find people with these conditions, researchers plumbed data from three biobanks, or repositories of deidentified genetic and medical data from individuals. One biobank was from Britain, and the other two were from the United States.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28050,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28048"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28051,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28048\/revisions\/28051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}