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Replication of 13 obesity loci among Singaporean Chinese, Malay and Asian-Indian populations

International Journal of Obesity volume 36, pages 159–163 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective:

Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 38 obesity-associated loci among European populations. However, their contribution to obesity in other ethnicities is largely unknown.

Methods:

We utilised five GWAS (N=10 482) from Chinese (three cohorts, including one with type 2 diabetes and another one of children), Malay and Indian ethnic groups from Singapore. Data sets were analysed individually and subsequently in combined meta-analysis for Z-score body-mass index (BMI) associations.

Results:

Variants at the FTO locus showed the strongest associations with BMI Z-score after meta-analysis (P-values 1.16 × 10−7–7.95 × 10−7). We further detected associations with nine other index obesity variants close to the MC4R, GNPDA2, TMEM18, QPCTL/GIPR, BDNF, ETV5, MAP2K5/SKOR1, SEC16B and TNKS/MSRA loci (meta-analysis P-values ranging from 3.58 × 10−4–1.44 × 10−2). Three other single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from CADM2, PTBP2 and FAIM2 were associated with BMI (P-value ⩽0.0418) in at least one dataset. The neurotrophin/TRK pathway (P-value=0.029) was highlighted by pathway-based analysis of loci that had statistically significant associations among Singaporean populations.

Conclusion:

Our data confirm the role of FTO in obesity predisposition among Chinese, Malays and Indians, the three major Asian ethnic groups. We additionally detected associations for 12 obesity-associated SNPs among Singaporeans. Thus, it is likely that Europeans and Asians share some of the genetic predisposition to obesity. Furthermore, the neurotrophin/TRK signalling may have a central role for common obesity among Asians.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Genome Institute of Singapore, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore, Singapore

    R Dorajoo, R T-H Ong, M Seielstad & J Liu

  2. Department of Genomics of Common Disease, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK

    R Dorajoo, A I F Blakemore & P Froguel

  3. Centre for Molecular Epidemiology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    X Sim & R T-H Ong

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    D P K Ng & E-S Tai

  5. Institute of Human Genetics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    M Seielstad

  6. Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA

    M Seielstad

  7. Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore National Eye Centre, Singapore, Singapore

    T-Y Wong, S-M Saw & S-M Saw

  8. CNRS-UMR-8199, Univ Lille Nord de France, Lille, France

    P Froguel

  9. Department of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    E-S Tai

Authors
  1. R Dorajoo
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  2. A I F Blakemore
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  3. X Sim
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  4. R T-H Ong
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  5. D P K Ng
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  6. M Seielstad
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  7. T-Y Wong
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  8. S-M Saw
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  9. P Froguel
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  10. J Liu
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  11. E-S Tai
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to P Froguel, J Liu or E-S Tai.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on International Journal of Obesity website

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Dorajoo, R., Blakemore, A., Sim, X. et al. Replication of 13 obesity loci among Singaporean Chinese, Malay and Asian-Indian populations. Int J Obes 36, 159–163 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2011.86

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2011.86

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