title: A Genome-Wide Association Study in isolated populations reveals new genes associated to common food likings.
abstract: Food preferences are the first factor driving food choice and thus nutrition. They involve numerous different senses such as taste and olfaction as well as various other factors such as personal experiences and hedonistic aspects. Although it is clear that several of these have a genetic basis, up to now studies have focused mostly on the effects of polymorphisms of taste receptor genes. Therefore, we have carried out one of the first large scale (4611 individuals) GWAS on food likings assessed for 20 specific food likings belonging to 4 different categories (vegetables, fatty, dairy and bitter). A two-step meta-analysis using three different isolated populations from Italy for the discovery step and two populations from The Netherlands and Central Asia for replication, revealed 15 independent genome-wide significant loci (p < 5 × 10(-8)) for 12 different foods. None of the identified genes coded for either taste or olfactory receptors suggesting that genetics impacts in determining food likings in a much broader way than simple differences in taste perception. These results represent a further step in uncovering the genes that underlie liking of common foods that in the end will greatly help understanding the genetics of human nutrition in general.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS "Burlo Garofolo", Trieste, Italy. nicola.pirastu@burlo.trieste.it.|University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy. nicola.pirastu@burlo.trieste.it.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pirastu
authors.affiliation: Genetic Epidemiology Unit, Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Maarten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kooyman
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Traglia
authors.affiliation: Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS "Burlo Garofolo", Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonietta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Robino
authors.affiliation: Genetic Epidemiology Unit, Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Sara M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Willems
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pistis
authors.affiliation: Genetic Epidemiology Unit, Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Najaf
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Amin
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Cinzia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sala
authors.affiliation: Genetic Epidemiology Unit, Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|PolyOmica, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Lennart C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Karssen
authors.affiliation: Genetic Epidemiology Unit, Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|Centre for Medical Systems Biology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Van Duijn
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Toniolo
authors.affiliation: Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS "Burlo Garofolo", Trieste, Italy.|University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gasparini
mesh_terms: D005518:Food Preferences / Q000502:physiology*; D056426:Genetic Loci / Q000235:genetics*; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans
keywords: Association study; Food choice; Food consumption; Food preferences; GWAS; Isolated populations