Mapping expression QTLs for obesity in humans and mice. (360G-Wellcome-079534_Z_06_Z)

Obesity is a complex genetic disorder resulting from the interaction of genes and environmental factors. It is now possible to identify expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL), i.e. areas of the genome that are genetically linked to the expression level of a particular transcript, using microarrays. By carrying out genome scans in full pedigrees of humans and microarray analysis of expression in subcutaneous fat tissue eQTLs that co-localise with peaks of linkage for obesity traits will be identified. This strategy will allow not only the identification of genes involved in obesity susceptibility or in obesity-associated QTLs but also of trans-eQTLs that are likely to shed new light on pathways and networks of genes involved in obesity. Association analysis of the candidate genes will then be used to identify causative variants for obesity in different human populations. Comparison of the data with our other collaborator's data, i.e. Prof Nick Wareham, Dr Panos Deloukas and Dr Ines Barroso at the Sanger Institute, Cambridge and Prof Daniel Pomp atthe University of Chapel Hill in North Carolina will significantly improve theanalysis of our dataset. Preliminary functional analysis will provide insightsinto the normal physiological role of the identified gene products.