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People’s health and lifestyle are influenced by the genes of their partners, according to a study published last month (December 14) in Nature Human Behavior. Using data from more than 80,000 couples in the UK Biobank, researchers identified multiple correlations between individuals’ traits and their partners’ genomes, and concluded that around one-quarter of those associations were partly causal, with one person’s DNA having indirect effects on the other person’s health or behavior.
“I was really excited to see this paper,” says Emily McLean, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford College of Emory University in Georgia who was not involved in the work. “Intuitively, it seems like, of course our behaviors are influenced by the individuals around us, and likely by the genes that those individuals are carrying. So it was really great to see some empirical support for that intuitive idea.”
Unlike direct genetic effects, ...
