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A polygene is a member of a group of non-epistatic genes that interact additively to influence a phenotypic trait, thus contributing to multiple-gene inheritance (polygenic inheritance, multigenic inheritance, quantitative inheritance [1]), a type of non-Mendelian inheritance, as opposed to single-gene inheritance, which is the core notion of Mendelian inheritance.
Polygenic adaptation describes a process in which a population adapts through small changes in allele frequencies at hundreds or thousands of loci. [ 1 ] Many traits in humans and other species are highly polygenic , i.e., affected by standing genetic variation at hundreds or thousands of loci.
Human height is a continuous trait meaning that there is a wide range of heights. There are an estimated 50 genes that affect the height of a human. Environmental factors, like nutrition, also play a role in a human's height. Other examples of complex traits include: crop yield, plant color, and many diseases including diabetes and Parkinson's ...
Traits controlled by two or more genes are said to be polygenic traits. Polygenic means "many genes" are necessary for the organism to develop the trait. For example, at least three genes are involved in making the reddish-brown pigment in the eyes of fruit flies. Polygenic traits often show a wide range of phenotypes.
For example, Mendel focused on traits whose genes have only two alleles, such as "A" and "a". However, many genes have more than two alleles. He also focused on traits determined by a single gene. But some traits, such as height, depend on many genes rather than just one. Traits dependent on multiple genes are called polygenic traits.
Genetic disorders may also be complex, multifactorial, or polygenic, meaning they are likely associated with the effects of multiple genes in combination with lifestyles and environmental factors. Multifactorial disorders include heart disease and diabetes .
Pleiotropy seems limited for many traits in humans since the SNP overlap, as measured by variance accounted for, between many polygenic predictors is small. Most genetic traits are polygenic in nature: controlled by many genetic variants, each of small effect. These genetic variants can reside in protein coding or non-coding regions of the genome.
With these traits as being by-products of others it can ultimately be said that these traits evolved but not that they necessarily represent adaptations. Polygenic traits are controlled by a number of separate genes. Many traits are polygenic, for example human height. To drastically change a polygenic trait is likely to require multiple changes.