Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1982 Nov;34(6):874-87.

Genetic regulation of plasma and red blood cell magnesium concentrations in man. I. Univariate and bivariate path analyses

Genetic regulation of plasma and red blood cell magnesium concentrations in man. I. Univariate and bivariate path analyses

P Darlu et al. Am J Hum Genet. 1982 Nov.

Abstract

This paper concerns an analysis of family resemblance for magnesium concentrations, based on data from nuclear families and twins. Neither red blood cell magnesium nor plasma magnesium varies with age in children (under 20 years of age). Whereas adult plasma magnesium varies linearly with age, the red cell magnesium clearly showed a nonlinear trend: quadratic for males and a fifth-degree polynomial for females. Transformed magnesium concentrations generated six correlations in nuclear families and twins for each of the two traits. Separate univariate analyses, using a simple linear model with four parameters, strongly suggested that genetic factors are primarily responsible for the observed family resemblance. Both traits were then analyzed simultaneously using a simple bivariate model. We found that one common genetic factor alone could not explain all the 24 correlations generated for the bivariate analysis. The most parsimonious model involved only three parameters: genetic heritability for red blood cell magnesium (.922 +/- .014), genetic heritability for plasma magnesium (.721 +/- .040), and the genetic correlation between the two traits (.233 +/- .040).

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Biometrics. 1976 Sep;32(3):695-9 - PubMed
    1. Prog Clin Biol Res. 1978;24 Pt C:177-85 - PubMed
    1. Metabolism. 1979 Jan;28(1):90-5 - PubMed
    1. Ergeb Inn Med Kinderheilkd. 1979;42:113-31 - PubMed
    1. Genet Res. 1979 Apr;33(2):175-88 - PubMed

Publication types