2023-07-21 17:44:23
There are nearly 500 genes that seem to directly influence the food we eat. A study of the University of Colorado (USA). A finding that may be an important step towards the use of genetics in precision nutrition strategies that help improve health or prevent disease.
“Some of the genes we have identified are related to sensory pathways – including those for taste, smell and texture – and may also increase the reward response in the brain,” explains the research team’s leader, Joanne Cole, from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “Since some of these genes may have clear pathways to influence whether or not someone likes a food, they could potentially be used to create sensory genetic profiles to fine-tune a person’s dietary recommendations based on the foods they like to eat.”
For the study, one of the first large-scale studies of diet-related genes, the researchers used the UK Biobank, containing data from 500,000 people, to perform a phenotype-wide association study (PheWAS) that identified genes more strongly associated with diet than with any health or lifestyle factor. PheWAS studies are used to find associations between genetic variants of interest and a spectrum of human traits and behaviors, including dietary intake.
“The foods we choose are largely influenced by environmental factors such as culture, socioeconomic level and accessibility to foodCole explains. “Since genetics plays a much smaller role in influencing dietary intake than all environmental factors, we need to study hundreds of thousands of individuals to detect genetic influences amid environmental factors. The data needed to do so has not been available until recently.”
Cole presents his findings in «NUTRITION 2023»the most important annual meeting of the American Society of Nutrition.
One of the challenges in identifying diet-related genes is that what people eat is correlated with many other factors, including health factors such as high cholesterol or body weight, and even socioeconomic status. At the new job, the researchers applied computational methods to determine the direct effects of genetic variants that influence diet and separate them from indirect effects, such as when a gene influences diabetes and the diabetic must eat less sugar.
This study design was possible because the UK Biobank it contains not only detailed genetic information, but also detailed health and socioeconomic data. This allowed the researchers to analyze individual genetic variants for associations with thousands of traits, and then eliminate indirect genetic variants that were more strongly associated with other factors, such as diabetes.
The analysis revealed some 300 genes directly associated with the consumption of specific foods and almost 200 genes linked to dietary patterns that group several foods together, for example, the general intake of fish or the consumption of fruit.
“The study showed that dietary patterns tend to have more indirect genetic effects, meaning they are correlated with many other factors,” Cole says. “This demonstrates how important it is not to study dietary patterns in a vacuum, because the impact of dietary pattern on human health may be fully mediated or confounded by other factors.”
This demonstrates how important it is not to study dietary patterns in a vacuum, because the impact of dietary pattern on human health may be fully mediated or confounded by other factors.
In the near term, Cole is studying the newly identified diet-related genes to better understand their function, while also working to identify even more genes that directly influence food preferences. would you like to follow several lines of translational research based on these findings. For example, she is interested in studying whether using a person’s genetics to tailor the taste profile of a diet designed for weight loss could improve adherence.
It would also be possible to use these new knowledge to tailor food to a person’s genetic predisposition. “If we know that a gene encoding an olfactory receptor in the nose enhances fruit liking and enhances the reward response in the brain, molecular studies of this receptor could help identify natural or synthetic compounds that bind to it,” says Cole. “Then we could see if adding one of those compounds to healthy foods makes those foods be more appetizing for that person.”
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