Biotech Values

[biomaven0]

It's worth noting that in dogs, there is a single allele largely responsible for the dwarf breeds:

cience. 2007 Apr 6;316(5821):112-5.
A single IGF1 allele is a major determinant of small size in dogs.

Sutter NB, Bustamante CD, Chase K, Gray MM, Zhao K, Zhu L, Padhukasahasram B, Karlins E, Davis S, Jones PG, Quignon P, Johnson GS, Parker HG, Fretwell N, Mosher DS, Lawler DF, Satyaraj E, Nordborg M, Lark KG, Wayne RK, Ostrander EA.

National Human Genome Research Institute, Building 50, Room 5349, 50 South Drive MSC 8000, Bethesda, MD 20892-8000, USA.

Erratum in:

* Science. 2007 Jun 1;316(5829):1284.

Abstract

The domestic dog exhibits greater diversity in body size than any other terrestrial vertebrate. We used a strategy that exploits the breed structure of dogs to investigate the genetic basis of size. First, through a genome-wide scan, we identified a major quantitative trait locus (QTL) on chromosome 15 influencing size variation within a single breed. Second, we examined genetic variation in the 15-megabase interval surrounding the QTL in small and giant breeds and found marked evidence for a selective sweep spanning a single gene (IGF1), encoding insulin-like growth factor 1. A single IGF1 single-nucleotide polymorphism haplotype is common to all small breeds and nearly absent from giant breeds, suggesting that the same causal sequence variant is a major contributor to body size in all small dogs.

I'd guess that we'll see the variations (alleles or CNV) responsible for at least 50% of genetically-determined height in humans discovered in the next few years.

Peter