A collection of photos of genetically unrelated lookalikes, along with DNA analysis, has revealed that strong facial similarity is linked with shared genetic variants. The work will be published today (August 23rd) in the journal Cell Reports. “Our study provides a rare insight into human likenes
A collection of photos of genetically unrelated lookalikes, along withanalysis, has revealed that strong facial similarity is linked with shared genetic variants.
To do this, they recruited human doubles from the photographic work of François Brunelle. He is a Canadian artist who has been obtaining worldwide pictures of lookalikes since 1999. They obtained headshot pictures of 32 lookalike couples. The scientists determined an objective measure of likeness for the pairs using three different facial recognition algorithms.
Overall, the results revealed that these individuals share similar genotypes, but differ in their DNA methylation and microbiome landscapes. Half of the lookalike pairs were clustered together by all three algorithms. Genetic analysis revealed that 9 of these 16 pairs clustered together, based on 19,277 common single-nucleotide polymorphisms.
“We provided a unique insight into the molecular characteristics that potentially influence the construction of the human face,” Esteller says. “We suggest that these same determinants correlate with both physical and behavioral attributes that constitute human beings.”
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