title: Behavioural Susceptibility Theory: Professor Jane Wardle and the Role of Appetite in Genetic Risk of Obesity.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is considerable variability in human body weight, despite the ubiquity of the 'obesogenic' environment. Human body weight has a strong genetic basis and it has been hypothesised that genetic susceptibility to the environment explains variation in human body weight, with differences in appetite being implicated as the mediating mechanism; so-called 'behavioural susceptibility theory' (BST), first described by Professor Jane Wardle. This review summarises the evidence for the role of appetite as a mediator of genetic risk of obesity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Variation in appetitive traits is observable from infancy, drives early weight gain and is highly heritable in infancy and childhood. Obesity-related common genetic variants identified through genome-wide association studies show associations with appetitive traits, and appetite mediates part of the observed association between genetic risk and adiposity. Obesity results from an interaction between genetic susceptibility to overeating and exposure to an 'obesogenic' food environment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioural Science and Health, University College London, London, UK. c.llewellyn@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Clare H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Llewellyn
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioural Science and Health, University College London, London, UK.|School of Psychology, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fildes
mesh_terms: D001066:Appetite / Q000235:genetics*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000235:genetics*; D011594:Psychometrics; D012307:Risk Factors; D015430:Weight Gain
keywords: Appetite; Behavioural susceptibility; Eating behaviour; Genetic; Heritability; Obesity