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Increasing Heritability of BMI and Stronger Associations With the FTO Gene Over Childhood
Author(s) -
Haworth Claire M.A.,
Carnell Susan,
Meaburn Emma L.,
Davis Oliver S.P.,
Plomin Robert,
Wardle Jane
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
obesity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.438
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1930-739X
pISSN - 1930-7381
DOI - 10.1038/oby.2008.434
Subject(s) - heritability , obesity , twin study , medicine , childhood obesity , fto gene , demography , body mass index , longitudinal sample , early childhood , missing heritability problem , longitudinal study , genetic variants , genetics , gene , developmental psychology , biology , psychology , genotype , overweight , polymorphism (computer science) , pathology , sociology
The growing evidence of health risks associated with the rise in childhood obesity adds to the urgency of understanding the determinants of BMI. Twin analyses on repeated assessments of BMI in a longitudinal sample of >7,000 children indicated that the genetic influence on BMI becomes progressively stronger, with heritability increasing from 0.48 at age 4 to 0.78 at age 11. In the same large twin sample, the association between a common variant in the FTO gene and BMI increased in parallel with the rise in heritability, going from R 2 < 0.001 at age 4 to R 2 = 0.01 at age 11. These findings suggest that expression of FTO may become stronger throughout childhood. Increases in heritability may also be due to children increasingly selecting environments correlated with their genetic propensities.