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Association of rs9939609 in FTO with BMI among Polynesian peoples living in Aotearoa New Zealand and other Pacific nations

Journal of Human Genetics volume 68, pages 463–468 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

The fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) locus consistently associates with higher body mass index (BMI) across diverse ancestral groups. However, previous small studies of people of Polynesian ancestries have failed to replicate the association. In this study, we used Bayesian meta-analysis to test rs9939609, the most replicated FTO variant, for association with BMI with a large sample (n = 6095) of Aotearoa New Zealanders of Polynesian (Māori and Pacific) ancestry and of Samoan people living in the Independent State of Samoa and in American Samoa. We did not observe statistically significant association within each separate Polynesian subgroup. Bayesian meta-analysis of the Aotearoa New Zealand Polynesian and Samoan samples resulted in a posterior mean effect size estimate of +0.21 kg/m2, with a 95% credible interval [+0.03 kg/m2, +0.39 kg/m2]. While the Bayes Factor (BF) of 0.77 weakly favors the null, the BF = 1.4 Bayesian support interval is [+0.04, +0.20]. These results suggest that rs9939609 in FTO may have a similar effect on mean BMI in people of Polynesian ancestries as previously observed in other ancestral groups.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the many participants who so generously donated their genetic samples and other information for the study. We would also like to thank Jordyn Allan, Jill Drake, Roddi Laurence, Christopher Franklin, Meaghan House, Fiona Taylor, and Gabrielle Sexton for recruitment of the Aotearoa-wide study participants; Ria Akuhata-Brown, Nancy Aupouri and Carol Ford for recruitment of Ngāti Porou Hauora participants; and NeSI (New Zealand eScience Infrastructure) for provision of compute resource. We are grateful for the contributions of Melania Selu and Vaimoana Lupematisila to the recruitment of the 2010 Samoan sample. We thank the Samoan participants and local village authorities and research assistants over the years. We acknowledge the support of our research collaboration with the Samoa Ministry of Health, Samoa Bureau of Statistics, Samoan Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development, and the American Samoa Department of Health. We would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers whose comments and insights helped us improve our paper.

Funding

Research in Samoa and American Samoa was funded by the National Institutes of Health (R01-HL093093, R01-HL133040, R01-AG09375, R01-HL52611, R01-DK55406, P30-ES006096, and R01-DK59642). Research in New Zealand was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand (08/075, 10/548, 11/1075, 14/527), Lottery Health NZ, and the University of Otago.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Genetics, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Mohanraj Krishnan, Emily M. Russell, Shuwei Liu, Jenna C. Carlson, Ryan L. Minster & Daniel E. Weeks

  2. Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Amanda Phipps-Green, Tanya J. Major, Murray Cadzow & Tony R. Merriman

  3. Department of Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Lisa K. Stamp

  4. Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Nicola Dalbeth & Rinki Murphy

  5. Maurice Wilkins Centre, Auckland, New Zealand

    Nicola Dalbeth & Rinki Murphy

  6. Ngāti Porou Hauora Charitable Trust, Te Puia Springs, Tairāwhiti East Coast, New Zealand

    Jennie Harré Hindmarsh, Muhammad Qasim & Huti Watson

  7. Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Jenna C. Carlson & Daniel E. Weeks

  8. Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Nicola L. Hawley

  9. Ministry of Health, Government of Samoa, Apia, Samoa

    Take Naseri

  10. International Health Institute, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Take Naseri & Stephen T. McGarvey

  11. Lutia i Puava ae Mapu i Fagalele, Apia, Samoa

    Muagututi’a Sefuiva Reupena

  12. Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Ranjan Deka

  13. Department of Anthropology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Stephen T. McGarvey

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  1. Mohanraj Krishnan
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Contributions

MK: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Visualization; Writing - original draft; Writing - review & editing. AP-G: Methodology; Formal analysis; Data curation; Writing - review & editing. EMR: Methodology; Formal analysis; Data curation; Writing - review & editing. TJM: Methodology; Data curation; Writing - review & editing. MC: Methodology; Data curation; Writing - review & editing. LKS: Funding acquisition; Investigation; Writing - review & editing. ND: Funding acquisition; Investigation; Writing - review & editing. JHH: Project administration; Writing - review & editing. MQ: Project administration; Writing - review & editing. HW: Project administration; Writing - review & editing. SL: Analysis; Methodology; Writing - review & editing. JCC: Writing - review & editing; Supervision. RLM: Project administration; Funding acquisition; Writing - review & editing; Supervision. NLH: Project administration; Investigation; Methodology; Funding acquisition. TN: Investigation; Writing - review & editing. MSR: Investigation; Writing - review & editing. RD: Methodology; Writing - review & editing. STMcG: Project administration; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Writing - review & editing. TRM: Project administration; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Writing - review & editing; Supervision. RM: Project administration; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Writing - review & editing; Supervision. DEW: Conceptualization; Supervision; Funding acquisition; Data curation; Formal analysis; Visualization; Writing - original draft; Writing - review & editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel E. Weeks.

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Some of the authors declared Financial and Non-Financial Relationships and Activities, and Conflicts of Interest regarding this manuscript as indicated in the supplementary materials. The sponsors had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or writing of the report.

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Krishnan, M., Phipps-Green, A., Russell, E.M. et al. Association of rs9939609 in FTO with BMI among Polynesian peoples living in Aotearoa New Zealand and other Pacific nations. J Hum Genet 68, 463–468 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s10038-023-01141-5

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