title: Obesity gene atlas in mammals.
abstract: Obesity in humans has increased at an alarming rate over the past two decades and has become one of the leading public health problems worldwide. Studies have revealed a large number of genes/markers that are associated with obesity and/or obesity-related phenotypes, indicating an urgent need to develop a central database for helping the community understand the genetic complexity of obesity. In the present study, we collected a total of 1,736 obesity associated loci and created a freely available obesity database, including 1,515 protein-coding genes and 221 microRNAs (miRNAs) collected from four mammalian species: human, cattle, rat, and mouse. These loci were integrated as orthologs on comparative genomic views in human, cattle, and mouse. The database and genomic views are freely available online at: http://www.integratomics-time.com/fat_deposition. Bioinformatics analyses of the collected data revealed some potential novel obesity related molecular markers which represent focal points for testing more targeted hypotheses and designing experiments for further studies. We believe that this centralized database on obesity and adipogenesis will facilitate development of comparative systems biology approaches to address this important health issue in human and their potential applications in animals.
authors.affiliation: 1. Department of Animal Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Domzale, Slovenia;
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kunej
authors.affiliation: 1. Department of Animal Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Domzale, Slovenia;
authors.forename: Dasa
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jevsinek Skok
authors.affiliation: 1. Department of Animal Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Domzale, Slovenia; ; 2. Centre for Mathematical and Computational Biology, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Herts, AL5, 2JQ, UK;
authors.forename: Minja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zorc
authors.affiliation: 1. Department of Animal Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Domzale, Slovenia;
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ogrinc
authors.affiliation: 3. Department of Animal Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164-6351, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Michal
authors.affiliation: 1. Department of Animal Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Domzale, Slovenia;
authors.forename: Milena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kovac
authors.affiliation: 3. Department of Animal Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164-6351, USA.
authors.forename: Zhihua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jiang
keywords: adipogenesis; fat deposition; integratomics; mammals; microRNA (miRNA); obesity.