Andrew Kirk, a malt advocate, noses a glass of whisky (Photo : Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Scientists have uncovered four genes that are thought to be responsible for how someone's nose looks and how it was formed from birth.
Researchers from the University College London analyzed the DNA and faces of over 6000 people. They studied how the breadth, height and pointiness of their noses were affected with the genes found in their DNA.
After analyzing thousands of faces, the researchers determined that there were four genes responsible for the pointiness and width of a human nose. These were PAX1, GLI3, RUNX2 and DCHS2.
However, there was a fifth gene that affected the jut of the chin. The gene was EDAR, The Independent reported.
Previously, people thought that the nose's looks were just for aesthetic purposes. However, the researchers believe that the variation in nose shapes found from people across the world has a purpose.
"For example, the comparatively narrower nose of Europeans has been proposed to represent an adaptation to a cold, dry climate," said Andrés Ruiz-Linares from the University College London.
It is also one reason why people who are in the hotter climates have shorter noses. The air that they breathe do not need to be warmed and so their noses are designed to easily and quickly inhale and exhale air from the environment.
Besides analyzing the faces and DNA data, the researchers also reconstructed half of the participants' faces in 3D. This was done in order to get the exact measurements of their facial features, Discovery News reported.
The RUNX2 gene affected how the width of the nose's bridge was formed. DCHS2 affected pointiness and GLI3 had the largest impact on the breadth.
"Few studies have looked at how normal facial features develop and those that have only looked at European populations, which show less diversity than the group we studied," said Senior researcher Dr Kaustubh Adhikari.
The research paves the way for more studies that can shed light on how humans evolved throughout time. Noses can tell how or where the people survived in certain time periods.
Researchers had their study, titled "A genome-wide association scan implicates DCHS2, RUNX2, GLI3, PAX1 and EDAR in human facial variation," published on May 19 at the Nature Communications journal.
