Characterizing Human Beings on a Molecular Level: People With Similar Faces Likely Have Similar DNA


According to senior author Manel Esteller of the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain, "our study provides a rare insight into human likeness by showing that people with extreme lookalike faces share common genotypes, whereas they are discordant at the epigenome and microbiome levels." "Genomics groups them together, while the rest differentiates them,"

The growth of the World Wide Web and the ability to share human images globally have led to a rise in the number of genetically unrelated individuals who have been discovered online as doubles or virtual twins. Esteller and his research group sought to characterize random people who objectively share face traits on a biological level in the current study.

They obtained human doubles for this purpose from François Brunelle's photography work. Since 1999, he has been a Canadian artist who has collected images of lookalikes from all around the world. 32 identical couples' headshot photos were gathered. The researchers used three distinct facial recognition algorithms to come up with an objective measure of resemblance for the couples.

The subjects also supplied saliva DNA for multiomics analysis along with a thorough biometric and lifestyle questionnaire. According to Esteller, "this special collection of samples has enabled us to explore how genomes, epigenomics, and microbiomics can contribute to human similarity."

Overall, the findings showed that although these people had comparable genotypes, they have different DNA methylation and microbial landscapes. All three methods clustered together half of the lookalike couples. Based on 19,277 common single-nucleotide polymorphisms, genetic study of these 16 couples showed that 9 of them grouped.

In addition, lookalike pairs were created using physical characteristics like height and weight as well as behavioral characteristics like smoking and education. Together, the results imply that shared genetic variation may affect common behaviors and behavior in addition to similar physical appearance.

According to Esteller, "We gave a unique insight into the molecular traits that may have an impact on the development of the human face." We propose that these same determinants are related to both the physical and behavioral characteristics that make up people.

There were certain restrictions on the study. The participants were primarily from Europe, there was a tiny sample size, and there were 2D black and white images used. Despite these limitations, the research may offer a molecular foundation for upcoming applications in a number of disciplines, including forensics, evolution, and healthcare.

The snapshot of the patient's face will already provide hints as to which genome he or she has, according to Esteller. "These results will have future ramifications in forensic medicine—reconstructing the criminal's face from DNA—and in genetic diagnosis." "The ultimate objective would be to forecast the human face structure based on the individual's multiomics landscape through joint efforts."

The governments of Catalonia and Spain, as well as the Cellex Foundation, all provided funding for this project. The document contains declarations of interest.

By CELL PRESS

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