We used SMR to identify genes whose expression could mediate the effects of SNPs on height. SMR analyses were performed using the SMR software v.1.03. We used publicly available gene eQTLs identified from two large eQTL studies; namely, the GTEx65 v.8 and the eQTLgen studies (see ‘URLs’ section). To ensure that our SMR results robustly reflect causality or pleiotropic effects of height-associated SNPs on gene expression, we only report here significant SMR results (that is, P < 5 × 10−8), which do not pass the heterogeneity in dependent instrument (HEIDI) test (that is, P > 0.01; Methods). The significance threshold for the HEIDI test was chosen on the basis of recommendations from another study66.