Description

We report a highly-penetrant form of obesity, initially observed in 31 heterozygous carriers of a 593kb or larger deletion at 16p11.2 from amongst subjects ascertained for cognitive deficits. Nineteen similar deletions were identified from GWAS data in 16053 individuals from 8 European cohorts; such deletions was absent from healthy non-obese controls and accounted for 0.7% of our morbid obesity cases (p = 6.4x10-8, OR = 43). These findings highlight a promising strategy for identifying missing heritability in obesity and other complex traits, in which insights from rare extreme cases can be used to elucidate the basis for more common phenotypes.

Publication Title

A new highly penetrant form of obesity due to deletions on chromosome 16p11.2.

Sample Metadata Fields

Specimen part, Disease