Obesity is the scourge of our time. The World Health Organization reports that its incidence has doubled in the last twenty years. In Europe, the obesity criteria is met by every third person, and the overweight criteria by more than half of the population.

Genetic research aimed at finding genes and gene variants associated with the risk of obesity has been conducted for many years. Despite several spectacular successes (including the identification of the relationship between the FTO gene and obesity), the relationship between the genetic background and the risk of developing the disease is still poorly understood.

Obesity is de facto a disease of cellular metabolism, which in unable to maintain the balance between the amount of energy supplied to the body and the amount of energy used by it. The “leaders” of cellular energy homeostasis are mitochondria, which produce energy in the process of cellular respiration. Interestingly, mitochondria, which were once free-living bacteria, contain their own genome. Therefore, it seems that changes in the genes of both genomes - nuclear and mitochondrial - as well as their interaction, may significantly affect the risk of obesity.

Scientists from the Center for Medical Genomics OMICRON CMUJ decided to analyze this compound. After examining a group of almost 500 women, they were able to identify a relationship between the presence of a genetic variant in one of the mitochondrial genes (G4917A MT-ND2) and a lower BMI. The variant is located in the gene encoding the protein that is part of the respiratory chain. The researchers confirmed the result on another group of almost 1,900 people. What’s more, they showed that the presence of this genetic variant could affect the interaction of two genomes. In the interaction analysis, they showed that the risk of obesity is influenced not only by the presence of the mentioned mitochondrial variant, but also by its coexistence with other variants of the nuclear genome. Interestingly, these variants were located in genes related to the activity of mitochondria (TFB2M, POLRMT), thus confirming that their coexistence may translate into energy production efficiency.

The results of the study by the Center for Medical Genomics OMICRON CMUJ team indicate that communication between the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes is extremely important, and its disruption may lead to the development of diseases.

Publication available at:

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12920-020-00752-7

The publication has been funded from the budget of the qLife Priority Research Area under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University.

The article on the qLIFE PRA website:

https://qlife.cm-uj.krakow.pl/aktualnosci/sztuka-komunikacji-takze-molekularnej-i-jej-wplyw-na-otylosc/