One of the hopes and promises of the Human Genome Sequencing Project was that it would revolutionize the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of most human disorders. It would do this by uncovering the supposed “genetic bases” of human behavior. With a few exceptions, however, the search for common gene variants -“polymorphisms” – associated with common diseases has borne little fruit. And to date, not a single polymorphism has been reliably associated with any psychiatric disorders nor any aspect of human behavior within the “normal” range.
To some researchers this state of affairs has given rise to a conundrum known as the “problem of missing heritability.” If traits such as intelligence are reported to be 50% heritable, goes the theory, why have no genes associated with intelligence been identified?
Read the full, original story here: Still Chasing Ghosts: A New Genetic Methodology Will Not Find the “Missing Heritability”
