Gene-Lifestyle Interactions in Obesity.

ABSTRACT: Obesity is a complex multifaceted disease resulting from interactions between genetics and lifestyle. The proportion of phenotypic variance ascribed to genetic variance is 0.4 to 0.7 for obesity and recent years have seen considerable success in identifying disease-susceptibility variants. Although with the advent of genome-wide association studies the list of genetic variants predisposing to obesity has significantly increased the identified variants only explain a fraction of disease heritability. Studies of gene-environment interactions can provide more insight into the biological mechanisms involved in obesity despite the challenges associated with such designs. Epigenetic changes that affect gene function without DNA sequence modifications may be a key factor explaining interindividua

SUBMITTER: van Vliet-Ostaptchouk JV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3873060 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature