A Drosophila functional evaluation of candidates from human genome-wide association studies of type 2 diabetes and related metabolic traits identifies tissue-specific roles for dHHEX.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identify regions of the genome that are associated with particular traits, but do not typically identify specific causative genetic elements. For example, while a large number of single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and related traits have been identified by human GWAS, only a few genes have functional evidence to support or to rule out a role in cellular metabolism or dietary interactions. Here, we use a recently developed Drosophila model in which high-sucrose feeding induces phenotypes similar to T2D to assess orthologs of human GWAS-identified candidate genes for risk of T2D and related traits.

Results

Disrupting orthologs of certain T2D candidate genes (HHEX, THADA, PPARG, KCNJ11) led to

SUBMITTER: Pendse J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3608171 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature