Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of human complex traits have provided us with new estimates of heritability. These estimates foreground the question of genetic causation. After having presented in simple terms the rationale underlying this way of estimating heritability, I assess the extent to which relationships between genes and phenotypes established with GWAS satisfy several dimensions of causal relationships – namely range of influence, specificity, and stability – distinguished within the interventionist account of causation. The upshot is that if these relationships are causal in some sense, my analysis shows the extent to which they do not represent paradigmatic causal relationships.

中文翻译：

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因果关系和 SNP 遗传力

人类复杂性状的全基因组关联研究 (GWAS) 为我们提供了对遗传力的新估计。这些估计突出了遗传因果关系的问题。在简单地介绍了这种估计遗传力的方法的基本原理之后，我评估了用 GWAS 建立的基因和表型之间的关系在多大程度上满足了因果关系的几个维度——即影响范围、特异性和稳定性——在干预者中区分因果关系。结果是，如果这些关系在某种意义上是因果关系，我的分析表明它们在多大程度上不代表范式因果关系。