Scientists from the US have investigated the relationship between the Taq1 A1 allele and percentage of body fat in overweight and obese subjects. Although there are many environmental factors which can reduce body fat, such as long-duration exercise, aerobic exercise and diet, it has been proposed that genetics may play a significant role in compulsive eating disorders.
In this study 122 obese/overweight Caucasian subjects and 30 non-obese Caucasian controls were genotyped and split into two independent groups; those with the Taq1 A1 allele and those without the A1 allele. It was found that the DRD2 Taq1 A1 allele was present in 67% of the obese/overweight subjects compared to 3.3% of super control group. Therefore it is proposed that, while obesity is a polygenic disorder and there are other factors involved, the DRD2 gene plays a significant role in obesity, as measured by percent body fat.
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Correlation of the Taq1 dopamine D2 receptor gene and percent body fat in obese and screened control subjects: A preliminary report, Amanda L. C. Chen, Kenneth Blum, Thomas J. H. Chen, John Giordano, B. William Downs, David Han, Debmalya Barh and Eric R. Braverman, Food Funct., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/c1fo10089k
