Appetite is a heritable phenotype associated with adiposity.
BACKGROUND
The high heritability of adiposity combined with its shifting distribution over time suggests that genetic and environmental influences interact in the etiology of adiposity.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to examine evidence that genetically determined differences in appetite underlie variation in susceptibility to obesogenic environments.


METHODS
Summary of a program of published research.


RESULTS
Recent behavioral and psychometric studies demonstrate that appetitive characteristics such as responsiveness to internal satiety signals and external food cues not only differentiate obese and normal-weight groups, but are quantitatively associated with weight. Twin analyses show that variation in these appetitive traits is highly heritable. Sensitivity to internal satiety cues is linked with the FTO gene and mediates the association between FTO and weight.


CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that sensitivity to internal and external appetitive signals are heritable phenotypes that increase the risk of overeating in "obesogenic" environments. A behavioral susceptibility model helps to explain how weight is both highly heritable and highly responsive to environmental characteristics.
Wardle
Jane
J
Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT, London, UK, j.wardle@ucl.ac.uk.
Carnell
Susan
S
D050154:Adiposity / Q000235:genetics*; D000071516:Alpha-Ketoglutarate-Dependent Dioxygenase FTO; D001066:Appetite / Q000235:genetics*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D040582:Inheritance Patterns; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009765:Obesity / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D018433:Twin Studies as Topic
D011506:Proteins; D000071516:Alpha-Ketoglutarate-Dependent Dioxygenase FTO; C526492:FTO protein, human