Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

DISEASE GENETICS

ADCY3, neuronal primary cilia and obesity

Nature Genetics volume 50, pages 166–167 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Two new studies identify rare homozygous variants in ADCY3 that are causal for monogenic obesity in consanguineous families of Pakistani origin and are associated with increased risk of obesity in Greenlandic individuals. Greenlandic carriers of homozygous loss-of-function variants in ADCY3, and individuals from trans-ancestry studies with a burden of rare ADCY3 loss-of-function variants, also have increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

Obesity, defined as a body mass index (BMI) of greater than 30 kg/m2, has been increasing in prevalence worldwide. Changes in diet and lifestyle are contributing factors, but within the same environment differences in obesity risk are influenced by genes. Thus far, studies of rare non-syndromic forms of severe obesity have led to the identification of a number of causal mutations in genes mostly mapping to the leptin–melanocortin pathway. However, the majority of obese individuals do not carry causal mutations in these genes, and their obesity results from a complex interaction between many predisposing genetic variants and the environment. Genome-wide association studies have identified hundreds of loci influencing BMI and obesity, which also highlight the importance of neuronal networks1,2 in energy homeostasis.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1

Marina Corral Spence/Springer Nature.

References

  1. Locke, A. E. et al. Nature 518, 197–206 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Speliotes, E. K. et al. Nat. Genet. 42, 937–948 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Saeed, S. et al. Nat. Genet. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-017-0023-6 (2018).

  4. Warrington, N. M. et al. Int. J. Epidemiol. 44, 700–712 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Grarup, N. et al. Nat Genet. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-017-0022-7 (2018).

  6. Moltke, I. et al. Nature 512, 190–193 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Tong, T., Shen, Y., Lee, H. W., Yu, R. & Park, T. Sci. Rep. 6, 34179 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Wong, S. T. et al. Neuron 27, 487–497 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Wang, Z. et al. PLoS One 4, e6979 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Bishop, G. A., Berbari, N. F., Lewis, J. & Mykytyn, K. J. Comp. Neurol. 505, 562–571 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Cao, H., Chen, X., Yang, Y. & Storm, D. R. Integr. Obes. Diabetes 2, 225–228 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Reiter, J. F. & Leroux, M. R. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 18, 533–547 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Siljee, J. E. et al. Nat Genet. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-017-0020-9 (2018).

  14. Wu, L., Shen, C., Seed Ahmed, M., Östenson, C. G. & Gu, H. F. Obes. Rev. 17, 907–914 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Hong, S. H. et al. Oncotarget 4, 1791–1803 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK

    Inês Barroso

Authors
  1. Inês Barroso
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Inês Barroso.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Barroso, I. ADCY3, neuronal primary cilia and obesity. Nat Genet 50, 166–167 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0043-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0043-x

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing