title: Gene-Lifestyle Interactions in Obesity.
abstract: Obesity is a complex multifaceted disease resulting from interactions between genetics and lifestyle. The proportion of phenotypic variance ascribed to genetic variance is 0.4 to 0.7 for obesity and recent years have seen considerable success in identifying disease-susceptibility variants. Although with the advent of genome-wide association studies the list of genetic variants predisposing to obesity has significantly increased the identified variants only explain a fraction of disease heritability. Studies of gene-environment interactions can provide more insight into the biological mechanisms involved in obesity despite the challenges associated with such designs. Epigenetic changes that affect gene function without DNA sequence modifications may be a key factor explaining interindividual differences in obesity, with both genetic and environmental factors influencing the epigenome. Disentangling the relative contributions of genetic, environmental and epigenetic marks to the establishment of obesity is a major challenge given the complex interplay between these determinants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jana V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: van Vliet-Ostaptchouk
authors.affiliation: Unit of Genetic Epidemiology and Bioinformatics, Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Harold
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Snieder
authors.affiliation: Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism and Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, OX3 7BN UK.
authors.forename: Vasiliki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lagou
keywords: Environment; Epigenetics; Epigenome; Genetics; Gene–environment interaction; Lifestyle; Obesity