Author Identifier

Guan K. Tay: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6639-3298

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

PLoS ONE

Volume

20

Issue

2 February

PubMed ID

39928610

Publisher

PLOS

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

Funders

Khalifa University

Comments

Alshehhi, A., Mousa, M., Tay, G. K., Werghi, N., & AlSafar, H. (2025). Genome wide association study reveals novel associations with face morphology. PloS One, 20(2). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299660

Abstract

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on the Middle Eastern population, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have been relatively limited. The present study aims to investigate genotype-face morphology associations in the UAE population through Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS). Phenotypic data (44 face measurements) from 172 Emiratis was obtained through three-dimensional (3D) scanning technology and an automatic face landmarking technique. GWAS analysis revealed associations of 19 genetic loci with six face features, 14 of which are novel. The GWAS analysis revealed 11 significant relationships between 44 face parameters and 242 SNPs, exceeding the GWAS significance threshold. These phenotypes were previously associated with body height, craniofacial defects, and facial characters. The most significant associations of these genetic variations were related to six main facial features which were facial convexity, left orbital protrusion, mandibular contour, nasolabial angle D, inferior facial angle B, and inferior facial angle A. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first GWAS study to investigate the association of SNP variations with face morphology in the Middle Eastern population.

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0299660

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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