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The researchers caution that this finding does not mean that people with this genetic variant can overeat without gaining weight
.
This study represents a major advance in our understanding of the genetic factors that contribute to obesity and has the potential to lead to new treatments
.
A new study by researchers from Spain's National Cancer Research Center and the IMDEA Food Institute has found that people with a specific gene linked to cellular nutrition tend to accumulate less fat
.
How much do genes affect our weight? Previous studies have estimated that genes affect the weight of the general population by about 20 percent
.
Nerea Deleyto-Seldas, a researcher at Spain's National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), said this means that lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise have a big impact, but genetics also play a role
.
Nearly 100 genetic variants have been identified that modestly increase the likelihood of
having a high BMI.
Spain's National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) and IMDEA Food Research Institute have identified an additional genetic variant
.
The study, published in the journal Genome Biology, was co-authored
by Nerea Deleyto-Seldas of CNIO and Lara P.
Fernandez of the IMDEA Food Institute.
A genetic variation is a slightly different version of a gene that usually does not cause significant changes
in the body.
But this specific variant affects the amount of fat the body stores, and the authors of the new study suggest that this variant is particularly prevalent
in Europe.
It is estimated that nearly 60% of the European population carries this variation
.
For Alejo Efeyan, head of the CNIO Metabolism and Cell Signaling Group, "This discovery is a step
forward in understanding the genetic component of obesity.
Ana Ramirez de Molina, director of the IMDEA Food Institute, believes that "a better understanding of the role of cellular nutrition sensing pathways in obesity may have implications
for the development and application of personalized strategies to prevent and treat obesity.
" ”
Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat that affects health
.
To find the genetic variants that influence this phenomenon, as well as the associated metabolic changes, a team from the IMDEA Food Institute collected genetic material and data from 790 healthy volunteers, such as weight, BMI, total and visceral fat, muscle mass, waist and hip circumference, etc
.
The researchers investigated possible links between these parameters and 48 genetic variants that were selected for their potential functional correlation
.
They found "a significant correlation
between a variant in the FNIP2 gene and many obesity-related parameters.
" ”
The CNIO team then investigated the effects
of this variant expressed in genetically engineered mice.
Efeyan explains: "We found that mice with this variant gene had 10 to 15 percent less fat
than mice that did not carry this gene.
In humans, this variant gene is associated with
wasting.
”
In humans, the effects of this variation cannot be separated from many other genetic and environmental variables that affect physical fitness, so it is impossible to accurately estimate the magnitude
of its effects.
But considering that genetic factors do not affect obesity by more than 20%, the researchers believe that the effect of the variation in this finding on obesity must be small
.
For this reason, the researchers used terms such as susceptibility or predisposition to describe: "It is completely impossible for a person carrying this genetic variant to overeat without gaining weight," Efeyan clarified
.
The transgenic animals used for this study showed no other changes or differences
.
"The observations in mice are striking because many of these studies are often limited to class associations; In this paper, we show that changing one letter throughout the mouse genome replicates what we observed in human variation," Efeyan continued
.
This variation is present in a gene involved in a signaling pathway that tells cells which nutrients are available
.
Why a small genetic change affects slimming trends now needs to be studied
.
Nerea Deleyto added that the goal for the future is to "better understand the molecular basis of the effects of this genetic variation, i.
e.
what happens
to cells biochemically.
" We need to improve genetic tools to analyze the functional consequences of this variation that are important in organisms, for example during fat development
.
”
The finding also raises questions for other areas of science, such as what evolutionary pressures favored the selection of this variation, and when it occurred
.
Reference: Folliculin-interacting protein FNIP2 impacts on overweight and obesity through a polymorphism in a conserved 3
