Face MRI images were used to quantify the metrics of face shape ahead of the genetic study. Understanding the genes that determine human facial shape could one day provide valuable information about person's appearance using just their DNA.The discovery of five genes involved in facial form could have applications in forensics, say the authors of a study. Virtually nothing was known about the genes responsible for facial shape in humans.
The study of almost 10,000 individuals is published in Plos Genetics.
"Perhaps some time it will be possible to draw a phantom portrait of a person solely from his or her DNA left behind, which provides interesting applications such as in forensics."