Coverage on Nature Genetics GDF5 and Height Paper

The study also uncovered a surprising link -- between the sequence that favours shortness and an increased risk of osteoarthritis.

A gene linked to increased risk of osteoarthritis and reduced height may have helped early humans survive Ice Age, a study has found.

A genetic change associated with shorter stature and increased risk of arthritis might have helped our ancestors survive the Ice Age, a study has showed.

The gene that increases your likelihood to suffer from arthritis could also be the gene that helped humans survive through the Ice Age, scientists have discovered.

A single gene that made it easier for early humans to colonise Europe and Asia also causes arthritis, researchers claim. The gene, which causes people to be more compact, became more common when early humans moved out of Africa. Being smaller helped...

Many people think of osteoarthritis as a kind of wear-and-tear disease, but there's clearly a genetic component at work here as well.

ARTHRITIS is often thought to be due to wear and tear, or triggered by the body's immune system, but there could be another reason - frostbite in our ancestors.

Joint pain is the price we paid for evolution

The study showed that mutations in the gene called GDF5 resulted in shorter bones that led to a compact body structure while reducing the risk of bone fracture from falling.

A genetic 'switch' that changes the activity of a key skeletal gene related to height has been discovered by a team of researchers, who have also pinpointed a genetic variant in the switch that favors shortness and is far more prevalent among Eurasian...