Facial Features are Determined by Genes

Genes play a great role in framing character such as decision making and self control but recent studies suggest that genes are involved in the development of facial features and facial abnormalities.

The Shape of the face defines a person's identity. The face of a person can often reveal their personality traits, character, and expression of emotions. It is also true that some facial shapes will change after some time because of a variety of reasons like due to weight gain, misfortune to hormonal variances, ailment, age and climate.

Genes are linked to specific facial features. The Shape and size of the nose, the width of the face, the exact space between the eyes, eyebrows and space between the lips and eyes are all encoded by genes. 

Earlier Studies have identified five genes that are involved in determining the human facial shape, but researchers haven’t yet understood the mechanism of genetic variation that contributes to the shape and size of the human face.

Small differences in a person’s DNA, known as Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) help predict the physical feature.

Facial feature genes could play a significant role in:

• Identifying suspects based on DNA obtained at the crime scene

• Recreating the facial images of humans who lived in the stone age 

• To predict the features of descendants and deceased ancestors.

Genetic analysis in forensics is now being widely used to ascertain the sex, age, and race of an individual while the use of information in genes that determine the facial features would further enhance identification of suspects.

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