Human diabetes and obesity: tracking down the genes.
Diabetes mellitus and obesity are heterogeneous disorders that affect up to 5-8% of the population of Western Europe. The importance of genetic factors in these disorders is well established; however, the genes involved and the defects leading to the manifestation of disease are largely unknown. Family studies are a powerful tool with which to localize chromosomal regions linked to a genetic disorder. A genome-wide search for the genes associated with susceptibility to diabetes mellitus and obesity, combined with a more-specific, candidate-gene approach, should enable the identification of the loci involved in these diseases. Once regions linked to disease are identified, positional-cloning techniques can be used to track down the gene(s) responsible.
Froguel
P
P
Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain (CEPH), Paris, France.
Hager
J
J
D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000235:genetics*; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000235:genetics*