Five Face Genes Have Been Identified, Could Help With Forensics
Posted on September 14, 2012
Researchers have discovered five genes that determine human facial shapes. The discovery could help forensics and enable partial facial shapes to be determined from DNA left at a crime scene. Another recent discovery makes it possible to identify eye color, hair color and ethnicity from DNA, so a more perfect picture of a criminal based on DNA found at a crime scene is coming together thanks to science.
Lead author Manfred Kayser from the Erasmus University Medical Center, told BBC News, "Perhaps some time it will be possible to draw a phantom portrait of a person solely from his or her DNA left behind, which provides interesting applications such as in forensics."
The study, published here in PLoS Genetics, was carried out on behalf of the International Visible Trait Genetics (VisiGen) Consortium. Researchers used head magnetic resonance images together with portrait photographs to map facial landmarks. They researchers studied DNA variants in facial shapes in almost 10,000 individuals. The five genes are named PRDM16, PAX3, TP63, C5orf50, and COL17A1.
You can see all the figures from the study here.
