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Brief Communication

Nature Genetics 39, 724–726 (1 June 2007) | doi:10.1038/ng2048

Variation in FTO contributes to childhood obesity and severe adult obesity

Christian Dina , David Meyre , Sophie Gallina , Emmanuelle Durand , Antje K|[ouml]|rner , Peter Jacobson , Lena M S Carlsson , Wieland Kiess , Vincent Vatin , Cecile Lecoeur , J|[eacute]|rome Delplanque , Emmanuel Vaillant , Fran|[ccedil]|ois Pattou , Juan Ruiz , Jacques Weill , Claire Levy-Marchal , Fritz Horber , Natascha Potoczna , Serge Hercberg , Catherine Le Stunff , Pierre Bougn|[egrave]|res , Peter Kovacs , Michel Marre , Beverley Balkau , St|[eacute]|phane Cauchi , Jean-Claude Ch|[egrave]|vre & Philippe Froguel

We identified a set of SNPs in the first intron of the FTO (fat mass and obesity associated) gene on chromosome 16q12.2 that is consistently strongly associated with early-onset and severe obesity in both adults and children of European ancestry with an experiment-wise P value of 1.67 |[times]| 10|[minus]|26 in 2,900 affected individuals and 5,100 controls. The at-risk haplotype yields a proportion of attributable risk of 22% for common obesity.