ABSTRACT
During the past decade, mutations affecting liability to obesity have been discovered at a phenomenal rate, and despite very few consistently replicated findings, a number of intriguing results have emerged in the literature (1). The obesity gene map shows putative loci on all chromosomes except Y. More than 600 genes, markers, and chromosomal regions have been associated or linked with human obesity phenotypes (1). However, researchers are still looking for the gene variants that cause most cases of obesity. Genome-wide scans in different ethnic populations have localized major obesity loci on chromosomes 2, 5, 10, 11 and 20 (2). This indicates that the common forms of obesity arises in individuals who carry a cluster of genes each of which creates only a minor tendency towards energy accretion, but whose combined effects can lead to a pronounced weight gain.
