multi-ancestry study. Fine-mapping of variants remains a particular challenge when attempted across ancestries in loci containing multiple signals (as is often the case for height).A third limitation of our study is our inability to perform well-powered replication analyses of genetic associations specific to populations with non-European ancestries, owing to the current limited availability of such data. Finally, as with all GWASs, definitive identification of effector genes and the mechanisms by which genes and variants influence phenotype remains a key bottleneck. Therefore, progress towards identifying causal genes from GWAS of height may be achieved by a combination of increasingly large whole-exome sequencing studies, allowing straightforward SNP-to-gene mapping45, the use of relevant complementary data (for example, context-specific eQTLs in relevant tissues and cell types) and the development of computational methods that can integrate these data.
