Journal
BEHAVIOR GENETICS
Volume 51, Issue 3, Pages 319-330Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10519-021-10047-x
Keywords
Multilevel model; Classical twin design; OpenMx; Region; Ancestry; Height
Funding
- Gravitation Program of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science
- Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research [NWO: 024-001-003]
- Netherlands Twin Registry Repository: researching the interplay between genome and environment [NWO: 480-15-001/674]
- BBMRI-NL [NWO184.021.007, 184.033.111]
- Decoding the gene-environment interplay of reading ability [NWO: 451-15017]
- NIH [DA-49867, DA-018673]
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The classical twin model is reparametrized as an equivalent multilevel model, with the 3-level multilevel model showing the regional clustering of 7-year-old children's height in the Netherlands. The findings suggest that regional clustering may represent ancestry effects on height variance.
The classical twin model can be reparametrized as an equivalent multilevel model. The multilevel parameterization has underexplored advantages, such as the possibility to include higher-level clustering variables in which lower levels are nested. When this higher-level clustering is not modeled, its variance is captured by the common environmental variance component. In this paper we illustrate the application of a 3-level multilevel model to twin data by analyzing the regional clustering of 7-year-old children's height in the Netherlands. Our findings show that 1.8%, of the phenotypic variance in children's height is attributable to regional clustering, which is 7% of the variance explained by between-family or common environmental components. Since regional clustering may represent ancestry, we also investigate the effect of region after correcting for genetic principal components, in a subsample of participants with genome-wide SNP data. After correction, region no longer explained variation in height. Our results suggest that the phenotypic variance explained by region might represent ancestry effects on height.
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