Lumberjacks and obesity genes

Thought I'd post on this one, because the title caught my eye, and because I was keen on finding a good lumberjack picture. They look for association between variants in 18 genes and obesity related phenotypes. I'm a bit perplexed by the choice of genes...

Association study between candidate genes and obesity-related phenotypes using a sample of lumberjacks.

Chamberland A, Tremblay N, Audet M, Gilbert B, Pérusse L, Vohl MC, Laprise C.

Public Health Genomics. 2009;12(4):253-8. Epub 2009 Feb 16.

INTRODUCTION: Complex traits such as obesity are modulated by genetic and environmental factors and lead to varied clinical presentations.The aim of this study was to investigate associations between candidate genes and obesity-related phenotypes using a sample of 252 lumberjacks issued from a founder population and sharing a common and circumscribed environment. METHODS: Thirty-seven variants in 18 genes were genotyped. The restriction fragment length polymorphism method and the template-directed dye-terminator incorporation assay with fluorescence polarization detection were employed for the genotyping assays. Multivariate logistic regression models were built in order to calculate the relative odds of exhibiting obesity-related phenotypes associated with the presence of the studied polymorphism. Among them, 21 single nucleotide polymorphisms were tested for associations with obesity phenotypes. RESULTS: Significant associations were found between carriers of the minor alleles of APOE-epsilon2, FABP2-A54T, UCP1-L229M, LPL-HindIII, LPL-S447X and LPL-T1973C, patients bearing a combination of LPL-D9N, LPL-N291S and LPL-P207L and obesity-related phenotypes. CONCLUSION: The present results suggest that a particular population such as lumberjacks, sharing the same environment, could help target genes involved in complex traits.