THE HUMAN OBESITY GENE MAP - THE 1997 UPDATE

An update of the human obesity gene map incorporating published result s up to October 1997 is presented. Evidence from Mendelian disorders e xhibiting obesity as a clinical feature; single-gem mutation rodent mo dels; quantitative trait loci uncovered in human genome-wide scans and in crossbreeding experiments with mouse, rat, and pig models; associa tion and case-control studies with candidate genes; and linkage studie s with genes and other markers is reviewed. All chromosomal locations of the animal loci are converted into human genome locations based on syntenic relationships between the genomes. A complete listing of all of these loci reveals that all but chromosome Y of the 24 human chromo somes are represented. Some chromosomes show at least three putative l oci related to obesity on both arms (1, 2, 6, 8, 11, and 20) and sever al on one chromosome arm only (3p, 4q, 5q, 74, 12q, 13q, 15q, 15p, 22q , and Xq). Studies reporting negative association and linkage results are also listed, with the exception of the unlinked markers from genom e-wide scans.