TY - JOUR T1 - A Genome-Wide Association Study in isolated populations reveals new genes associated to common food likings. JF - Rev Endocr Metab Disord Y1 - 2016 A1 - Pirastu, Nicola A1 - Kooyman, Maarten A1 - Traglia, Michela A1 - Robino, Antonietta A1 - Willems, Sara M A1 - Pistis, Giorgio A1 - Amin, Najaf A1 - Sala, Cinzia A1 - Karssen, Lennart C A1 - van Duijn, Cornelia A1 - Toniolo, Daniela A1 - Gasparini, Paolo AB -

Food preferences are the first factor driving food choice and thus nutrition. They involve numerous different senses such as taste and olfaction as well as various other factors such as personal experiences and hedonistic aspects. Although it is clear that several of these have a genetic basis, up to now studies have focused mostly on the effects of polymorphisms of taste receptor genes. Therefore, we have carried out one of the first large scale (4611 individuals) GWAS on food likings assessed for 20 specific food likings belonging to 4 different categories (vegetables, fatty, dairy and bitter). A two-step meta-analysis using three different isolated populations from Italy for the discovery step and two populations from The Netherlands and Central Asia for replication, revealed 15 independent genome-wide significant loci (p < 5 × 10(-8)) for 12 different foods. None of the identified genes coded for either taste or olfactory receptors suggesting that genetics impacts in determining food likings in a much broader way than simple differences in taste perception. These results represent a further step in uncovering the genes that underlie liking of common foods that in the end will greatly help understanding the genetics of human nutrition in general.

U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27129595?dopt=Abstract ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Non-additive genome-wide association scan reveals a new gene associated with habitual coffee consumption. JF - Sci Rep Y1 - 2016 A1 - Pirastu, Nicola A1 - Kooyman, Maarten A1 - Robino, Antonietta A1 - van der Spek, Ashley A1 - Navarini, Luciano A1 - Amin, Najaf A1 - Karssen, Lennart C A1 - van Duijn, Cornelia M A1 - Gasparini, Paolo AB -

Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages world-wide and one of the primary sources of caffeine intake. Given its important health and economic impact, the underlying genetics of its consumption has been widely studied. Despite these efforts, much has still to be uncovered. In particular, the use of non-additive genetic models may uncover new information about the genetic variants driving coffee consumption. We have conducted a genome-wide association study in two Italian populations using additive, recessive and dominant models for analysis. This has uncovered a significant association in the PDSS2 gene under the recessive model that has been replicated in an independent cohort from the Netherlands (ERF). The identified gene has been shown to negatively regulate the expression of the caffeine metabolism genes and can thus be linked to coffee consumption. Further bioinformatics analysis of eQTL and histone marks from Roadmap data has evidenced a possible role of the identified SNPs in regulating PDSS2 gene expression through enhancers present in its intron. Our results highlight a novel gene which regulates coffee consumption by regulating the expression of the genes linked to caffeine metabolism. Further studies will be needed to clarify the biological mechanism which links PDSS2 and coffee consumption.

VL - 6 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27561104?dopt=Abstract ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Genome-wide association analysis on five isolated populations identifies variants of the HLA-DOA gene associated with white wine liking. JF - Eur J Hum Genet Y1 - 2015 A1 - Pirastu, Nicola A1 - Kooyman, Maarten A1 - Traglia, Michela A1 - Robino, Antonietta A1 - Willems, Sara M A1 - Pistis, Giorgio A1 - Amin, Najaf A1 - Sala, Cinzia A1 - Karssen, Lennart C A1 - van Duijn, Cornelia M A1 - Toniolo, Daniela A1 - Gasparini, Paolo AB -

Wine is the most popular alcoholic beverage around the world and because of its importance in society has been widely studied. Understanding what drives its flavor has been a quest for decades but much is still unknown and will be determined at least in part by individual taste preferences. Recently studies in the genetics of taste have uncovered the role of different genes in the determination of food preferences giving new insight on its physiology. In this context we have performed a genome-wide association study on red and white wine liking using three isolated populations collected in Italy, and replicated our results on two additional populations coming from the Netherland and Central Asia for a total of 3885 samples. We have found a significant association (P=2.1 × 10(-8)) between white wine liking and rs9276975:C>T a polymorphism in the HLA-DOA gene encoding a non-canonical MHC II molecule, which regulates other MHC II molecules. The same association was also found with red wine liking (P=8.3 × 10(-6)). Sex-separated analysis have also revealed that the effect of HLA-DOA is twice as large in women as compared to men suggesting an interaction between this polymorphism and gender. Our results are one of the first examples of genome-wide association between liking of a commonly consumed food and gene variants. Moreover, our results suggest a role of the MHC system in the determination of food preferences opening new insight in this field in general.

VL - 23 IS - 12 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25758996?dopt=Abstract ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Association analysis of bitter receptor genes in five isolated populations identifies a significant correlation between TAS2R43 variants and coffee liking. JF - PLoS One Y1 - 2014 A1 - Pirastu, Nicola A1 - Kooyman, Maarten A1 - Traglia, Michela A1 - Robino, Antonietta A1 - Willems, Sara M A1 - Pistis, Giorgio A1 - d'Adamo, Pio A1 - Amin, Najaf A1 - D'Eustacchio, Angela A1 - Navarini, Luciano A1 - Sala, Cinzia A1 - Karssen, Lennart C A1 - van Duijn, Cornelia A1 - Toniolo, Daniela A1 - Gasparini, Paolo KW - Coffee KW - Genetic Association Studies KW - Humans KW - Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide KW - Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled KW - Taste AB -

Coffee, one of the most popular beverages in the world, contains many different physiologically active compounds with a potential impact on people's health. Despite the recent attention given to the genetic basis of its consumption, very little has been done in understanding genes influencing coffee preference among different individuals. Given its markedly bitter taste, we decided to verify if bitter receptor genes (TAS2Rs) variants affect coffee liking. In this light, 4066 people from different parts of Europe and Central Asia filled in a field questionnaire on coffee liking. They have been consequently recruited and included in the study. Eighty-eight SNPs covering the 25 TAS2R genes were selected from the available imputed ones and used to run association analysis for coffee liking. A significant association was detected with three SNP: one synonymous and two functional variants (W35S and H212R) on the TAS2R43 gene. Both variants have been shown to greatly reduce in vitro protein activity. Surprisingly the wild type allele, which corresponds to the functional form of the protein, is associated to higher liking of coffee. Since the hTAS2R43 receptor is sensible to caffeine, we verified if the detected variants produced differences in caffeine bitter perception on a subsample of people coming from the FVG cohort. We found a significant association between differences in caffeine perception and the H212R variant but not with the W35S, which suggests that the effect of the TAS2R43 gene on coffee liking is mediated by caffeine and in particular by the H212R variant. No other significant association was found with other TAS2R genes. In conclusion, the present study opens new perspectives in the understanding of coffee liking. Further studies are needed to clarify the role of the TAS2R43 gene in coffee hedonics and to identify which other genes and pathways are involved in its genetics.

VL - 9 IS - 3 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24647340?dopt=Abstract ER -