Lack of evidence for a major gene in the Mendelian transmission of BMI in Chinese.

Objectives: To determine the heritability of BMI and to examine the mode of inheritance of BMI variation in Chinese.

Research Methods And Procedures: Familial correlation and complex segregation analyses for BMI were undertaken in a Chinese sample composed of 392 nuclear families, with 1190 total individuals.

Results: A moderate heritability was found for BMI (h2 = 0.419-0.492). The obtained results do not support a major gene for BMI in our samples. BMI may be inherited in a complex and non-Mendelian manner in Chinese.

Discussion: The findings of this study suggest that identification of specific genes for BMI in Chinese, at least within the same data set, is a serious challenge because of the lack of evidence of a major gene for BMI in our Chinese sample.