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Blind cavefish that have adapted to annual cycles of starvation and binge-eating have mutations in the gene MC4R, the same gene that is mutated in certain obese people with insatiable appetites, according to a new study led by Harvard Medical School geneticists.
The findings, published in PNAS, reveal more about how vertebrates evolved to have different metabolisms from one another and could provide insights into the relationship between human obesity and disease.
"We all know that people have different metabolisms that lead to their gaining weight under different amounts of eating," said the study's senior author, Clifford Tabin, the George Jacob and Jacqueline Hazel Leder Professor of Genetics and chair of the Department of Genetics at HMS.
"The work with the cavefish gives us an example in a natural setting of why and how metabolisms evolved to be different," he said. "Some of the mechanisms we see in the fish may well have implications for human metabolism and therefore human health."
medicalxpress.com
The findings, published in PNAS, reveal more about how vertebrates evolved to have different metabolisms from one another and could provide insights into the relationship between human obesity and disease.
"We all know that people have different metabolisms that lead to their gaining weight under different amounts of eating," said the study's senior author, Clifford Tabin, the George Jacob and Jacqueline Hazel Leder Professor of Genetics and chair of the Department of Genetics at HMS.
"The work with the cavefish gives us an example in a natural setting of why and how metabolisms evolved to be different," he said. "Some of the mechanisms we see in the fish may well have implications for human metabolism and therefore human health."
Fat fish illuminate human obesity: Binge-eating cavefish share mutated gene with some obese people
Blind cavefish that have adapted to annual cycles of starvation and binge-eating have mutations in the gene MC4R, the same gene that is mutated in certain obese people with insatiable appetites, according to a new study led by Harvard Medical School geneticists.
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