The China Kadoorie Biobank is a member of the GIANT consortium, which has published a major effort to identify genetic variants affecting height in Nature. The study of nearly 5.4 million individuals of European, East Asian, Hispanic, African and South Asian ancestry is the largest GWAS study to date.
The study identified over 12,000 independent genetic variants that are significantly associated with height. These genetic variants were more likely to be found close to genes already known to be associated with growth disorders.
Understanding how genetics contributes to variation in human height is a model example which can lead to improvements in our understanding of how genetics can affect many other human characteristics. It is likely that most of the common genetic variants involved in height have now been identified, particularly in European ancestry populations, however, further research is needed in more individuals of East Asian and other non-European ancestries to uncover more of the diversity in the genetic contribution to height.