A US study has identified the gene responsible for obesity along with the genetics of different female body shapes, it has been revealed.
The research carried out on 228 women and based on work in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has been published this week in the open access journal BMC Genetics, Eurekalert reports.
In news that may be of interest to anti-aging physicians, a natural variation in the human LAMA5 gene may give an indication of future weight.
Maria De Luca and a team from the University of Alabama at Birmingham found two gene variants were associated with body shape, one in women of European American descent and the other affecting women of American African descent.
"[The fly] Drosophila share many components of fat biosynthesis, degradation and regulation with humans, including many of those implicated in diabetes and obesity," she said.
In related news, US scientists have succeeded in preventing age-related decline in a mouse liver.
