Genome-wide association study reveals sex-specific genetic architecture of facial attractiveness

• Published in: PLoS genetics Vol. 15; no. 4; p. e1007973
• Main Authors: Hu, Bowen, Shen, Ning, Li, James J, Kang, Hyunseung, Hong, Jinkuk, Fletcher, Jason, Greenberg, Jan, Mailick, Marsha R, Lu, Qiongshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 04-04-2019; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Alleles; Attraction; Beauty; Biology and Life Sciences; Blood lipids; Engineering and Technology; Face; Face - anatomy & histology; Female; Females; Gene expression; Gene loci; Genealogy; Genes; Genetic aspects; Genetic diversity; Genetic Variation; Genetics; Genome-wide association studies; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genomes; Genomics; Heritability; Hormones; Humans; Influence; Lipids; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methods; Multifactorial Inheritance; Physical Sciences; Physiological aspects; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Sex; Sex Characteristics; Sociology; Statistics; Supervision; United States > US; Wisconsin
• ISSN: 1553-7404; 1553-7390; 1553-7404
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1007973

Facial attractiveness is a complex human trait of great interest in both academia and industry. Literature on sociological and phenotypic factors associated with facial attractiveness is rich, but its genetic basis is poorly understood. In this paper, we conducted a genome-wide association study to discover genetic variants associated with facial attractiveness using 4,383 samples in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. We identified two genome-wide significant loci, highlighted a handful of candidate genes, and demonstrated enrichment for heritability in human tissues involved in reproduction and hormone synthesis. Additionally, facial attractiveness showed strong and negative genetic correlations with BMI in females and with blood lipids in males. Our analysis also suggested sex-specific selection pressure on variants associated with lower male attractiveness. These results revealed sex-specific genetic architecture of facial attractiveness and provided fundamental new insights into its genetic basis.