Adaptive genetic variation and heart disease risk.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose of review

Obesity, dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease are complex and determined by both genetic and environmental factors and their inter-relationships. Many associations from genome-wide association studies and candidate gene approaches have described a multitude of polymorphisms associating with lipid and obesity phenotypes but identified genetic variants account for only a small fraction of phenotypic variation.

Recent findings

That many genotype-phenotype associations involve variants under positive selection and that those variants respond to environmental cues together suggest prominent roles for both genetic adaptation and their interactions with the environment. Adaptive genetic variations interacting with environment modulate disease susceptibility but

SUBMITTER: Parnell LD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3936255 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature