Genetics of fasting and postprandial metabolite levels are overlapping

Abstract

Li-Gao R, de Mutsert R, Rosendaal FR, Willems van Dijk K, Mook-Kanamori DO. Genetics of fasting and postprandial metabolite levels are overlapping. Physiol Genomics 50: 235–236, 2018. First published January 26, 2018; doi:10.1152/physiolgenomics.00101. 2017.—In 2015, a genome-wide association study described 59 independent signals that showed strong associations with 85 fasting metabolite concentrations as measured by the Biocrates AbsoluteIDQ p150 kit. However, the human body resides in a nonfasting state for the greater part of the day, and the genetic basis of postprandial metabolite concentrations remains largely unknown. We systemati-cally examined these previously identified genetic associations in postprandial metabolite concentrations after a mixed meal. Of these 85 metabolites, 23 were identified with significant changes after the meal, for which 38 gene-metabolite associations were analyzed. Of these 38 associations, 31 gene-metabolite associations were replicated with postprandial metabolite concentrations. These data indicate that the genetics of fasting and postprandial metabolite levels are significantly overlapping.