A major risk factor for common diseases n the African American population is obesity, which occurs in 45% of the adult population. To date little is known about the genetic contributors to adiposity and obesity in this population. We have performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on body mass index (BMI) in 1760 African Americans derived from a type 2 diabetes (T2DM) study R01 DK663581 """"""""Genetics of African American Type 2 Diabetes"""""""". Our initial GWAS results suggest that genetic factors affecting adiposity in African Americans appear to be largely different from those previously identified in European-derived populations. Thus, identification of genetic loci affecting adiposity and obesity in African Americans may identify novel pathways for regulation of adiposity, which is a strong predictor for many complex diseases including cardiometabolic diseases and cancer, etc. These goals will be met by performing the following specific aims. 1. Carry out a comprehensive analysis of the GWAS data. 2. Perform meta analysis of GWAS data from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine (WFUSM) Study, the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) Study and the Health Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) Study consisting of up to 11000 samples. 3. Genotype high scoring SNPs from Aims 1 and 2, as well as confirm loci from European GWAS studies in 6000 samples. 4. Follow up loci with strong evidence of association with BMI in African Americans for intensive bioinformatics and sequencing analyses to gain insights on their roles in adiposity regulation and association with cardiometabolic diseases. Successful completion of these aims will set the stage for future studies on the mechanisms of action of these loci at molecular, cellular, and organism levels to contribute to the long term goal on the prediction, prevention, and treatment of obesity in African Americans.
This study is focused on identifying genes that ontribute to adiposity in the African American population.
