Check out www.obesitygenes.org - it is an interactive website for exploring mouse QTL for body weight and body fat, which contains most published mouse QTL, and may be the most comprehensive online source for mouse QTL related to adiposity. Setting up the website has been inspired, and in part supported, by NuGO and now that door is wide open for data mining projects that aim to find specific SNPs and/or genes!

In a study that will appear in the International Journal of Obesity soon, the authors created a physical gene map of almost 300 QTL from genome wide screens for obesity component traits. They performed a meta-analysis to localise consensus regions in the mouse genome, which control body weight and body composition, but have included detailed information from the original studies too (i.e. traits, age of the animals, diets, etc). Hotspots, which display considerable overlap with candidate genes and regions implicated in the regulation of body weight and body composition in rodents and/or humans, were also pinpointed. There is some additional information about the original mouse studies that are not listed on the website, which have been included in the paper. The authors willing continue to update the online version until it is complete.

Currently, the team is ready to perform a new study, which will address the genetics of obesity-related diseases such as type-2 diabetes. There are many more approaches to link together these elements so if you interested get in touch with  Hadi Al-Hasani [al-hasani@dife.de].