ArticlePLoS genetics2017
Investigating the case of human nose shape and climate adaptation.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 43 papers.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed.
- A proposed morphological and metric method for three-dimensional nasal reconstruction.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Article
- Nasal Gracilization in Sri Lankan Indigenous Vedda: Phenotypic Plasticity and Evolutionary Continuity.American journal of biological anthropology · 2026Article
- Article
- Know Your Nose: A Narrative Review of the Developmental and Functional Impact and Importance of the Nose, Nasal Breathing and Techniques on Health and Emotional Wellbeing.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The craniofacial shape of modern humans embodies genomic signatures of evolution, diversity, and clinical conditions.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- A Geometric Morphometrics Approach for Predicting Olfactory Region Accessibility: Toward Personalized Nose-to-Brain Drug Delivery.Journal of personalized medicine · 2025Article
- Combined genome-wide association study of facial traits in Europeans increases explained variance and improves prediction.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Interpreting SNP heritability in admixed populations.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Comparative Analysis of Korean Nasal Morphology Using Cone-Beam Computed Tomography.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The level of protein in the maternal murine diet modulates the facial appearance of the offspring via mTORC1 signaling.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Heritability within groups is uninformative about differences among groups: Cases from behavioral, evolutionary, and statistical genetics.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- A multiscale computational framework for the development of spines in molluscan shells.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Heritability within groups is uninformative about differences among groups: cases from behavioral, evolutionary, and statistical genetics.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Comparative physiological anthropogeny: exploring molecular underpinnings of distinctly human phenotypes.Physiological reviews · 2023Review
- Establishing standards for Yonsei point in a White South African population for the treatment of gummy smile.Clinical and experimental dental research · 2023Article
- Automatic landmarking identifies new loci associated with face morphology and implicates Neanderthal introgression in human nasal shape.Communications biology · 2023Article
- New insights into the variability of upper airway morphology in modern humans.Journal of anatomy · 2023Article
- Exploring regional aspects of 3D facial variation within European individuals.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Effect of genetic variants inForensic sciences research · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The evolutionary reasons for variation in nose shape across human populations have been subject to continuing debate. An import function of the nose and nasal cavity is to condition inspired air before it reaches the lower respiratory tract. For this reason, it is thought the observed differences in nose shape among populations are not simply the result of genetic drift, but may be adaptations to climate. To address the question of whether local adaptation to climate is responsible for nose shape divergence across populations, we use Qst-Fst comparisons to show that nares width and alar base width are more differentiated across populations than expected under genetic drift alone. To test whether this differentiation is due to climate adaptation, we compared the spatial distribution of these variables with the global distribution of temperature, absolute humidity, and relative humidity. We find that width of the nares is correlated with temperature and absolute humidity, but not with relative humidity. We conclude that some aspects of nose shape may indeed have been driven by local adaptation to climate. However, we think that this is a simplified explanation of a very complex evolutionary history, which possibly also involved other non-neutral forces such as sexual selection.
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