Zhang and U-M doctoral student Siliang Song have found a human genetic variant that impacts the sex ratio of children. They also discovered that there are likely many other hidden genetic variants influencing the sex ratio in human populations.
To investigate the genetic influence on sex ratio, the researchers recognized that they needed a much larger sample than in past studies. They utilized the UK Biobank, a biomedical database with genetic and health information from around 500,000 British participants.
