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Updated: Jul 31, 2026

Determination of Reproductive Competence by Confirming Pubertal Onset and Performing a Fertility Assay in Mice and Rats
Published on: October 13, 2018
Individual differences in puberty onset in girls: Bayesian estimation of heritabilities and genetic correlations
Stéphanie M van den Berg1, Adi Setiawan, Meike Bartels
1Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 1, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. SM.van.den.Berg@psy.vu.nl
Abstract:
: We report heritabilities for individual differences in female pubertal development at the age of 12. Tanner data on breast and pubic hair development in girls and data on menarche were obtained from a total of 184 pairs of monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Genetic correlations were estimated to determine to what extent the same genes are involved in different aspects of physical development in puberty. A Bayesian estimation approach was taken, using Markov-chain Monte Carlo simulation to estimate model parameters. All three phenotypes were to a significant extent heritable and showed high genetic correlations, suggesting that a common set of genes is involved in the timing of puberty in general. However, gonadarche (menarche and breast development) and adrenarche (pubic hair) are affected by different environmental factors, which does not support the three phenotypes to be regarded as indicators of a unitary physiological factor.
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