Polymorphisms in FTO, TMEM18 and PCSK1 are associated with BMI in southern Chinese population

Obesity is a major health problem in the world, and is dened as excessive fat accumulation and quantied by body mass index (BMI). Genetic factors play a key role in obesity. In the last few years, genomewide association studies (GWAS) have produced a number of novel genes and polygenic variants associated putatively with obesity. Common variants at FTO, INSIG2 and MC4R loci were previously reported to be associated with fat mass, weight and obesity in several populations (Sandholt et al. 2010). Yanagiya et al. (2007) revealed that genetic variations in MTMR9 may confer a predisposition towards obesity. PCSK1 was also rmly placed on the short list of genes reproducibly associated with common obesity (Benzinou et al. 2008). A meta-analysis of 15 GWAS performed by the GIANT consortium on total 32,387 individuals of European ancestry discovered that six previously unreported loci in or near KCTD15, SH2B1, GNPDA2, TMEM18, NEGR1 and MTCH2 are associated with BMI.