Genetic studies of body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology

Adam E Locke, Bratati Kahali, Sonja I Berndt, Anne E Justice, Tune H Pers, Felix R Day, Corey Powell, Sailaja Vedantam, Martin L Buchkovich, Jian Yang, Damien C Croteau-Chonka, Tonu Esko, Tove Fall, Teresa Ferreira, Stefan Gustafsson, Zoltán Kutalik, Jian'an Luan, Reedik Mägi, Joshua C Randall, Thomas W WinklerAndrew R Wood, Tsegaselassie Workalemahu, Jessica D Faul, Jennifer A Smith, Jing Hua Zhao, Wei Zhao, Jin Chen, Rudolf Fehrmann, Åsa K Hedman, Juha Karjalainen, Ellen M Schmidt, Devin Absher, Najaf Amin, Denise Anderson, Marian Beekman, Jennifer L Bolton, Jennifer L Bragg-Gresham, Steven Buyske, Ayse Demirkan, Guohong Deng, Georg B Ehret, Bjarke Feenstra, Mary F Feitosa, Krista Fischer, Anuj Goel, Sarah E Medland, Dmitry Shungin, Wendy L McArdle, Andrew Wong, Josine L Min, LifeLines Cohort Study

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

3210 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Obesity is heritable and predisposes to many diseases. To understand the genetic basis of obesity better, here we conduct a genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI), a measure commonly used to define obesity and assess adiposity, in up to 339,224 individuals. This analysis identifies 97 BMI-associated loci (P < 5 × 10(-8)), 56 of which are novel. Five loci demonstrate clear evidence of several independent association signals, and many loci have significant effects on other metabolic phenotypes. The 97 loci account for ∼2.7% of BMI variation, and genome-wide estimates suggest that common variation accounts for >20% of BMI variation. Pathway analyses provide strong support for a role of the central nervous system in obesity susceptibility and implicate new genes and pathways, including those related to synaptic function, glutamate signalling, insulin secretion/action, energy metabolism, lipid biology and adipogenesis.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)197-206
Number of pages10
JournalNature
Volume518
Issue number7538
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Feb 2015

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