Published in:
01-11-2007 | Commentary
Genetic studies of diabetes following the advent of the genome-wide association study: where do we go from here?
Published in: Diabetologia | Issue 11/2007
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We are all witnesses to a period of astonishing progress in our understanding of the genetic basis of diabetes, and the advances of recent months are arguably the most important made since the role of the HLA region was recognised in type 1 diabetes. The number of genetic regions causally implicated is now 11 each for type 1 and type 2 diabetes [1‐9], and is set to rise further. The bewildering pace of new discovery stands in stark contrast to the slow progress that characterised the previous two decades, with a total combined output of three confirmed genes for type 2 diabetes and six for type 1 (Fig. 1). At last, it seems, our understanding of the genetic basis of complex, multifactorial forms of diabetes is catching up with that of rarer, single-gene disorders.
Fig. 1
Progress in identifying susceptibility genes for multifactorial forms of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes above the dateline; type 2 diabetes below. Date shown does not always indicate the year of the first reported association, but rather the date of the papers showing the most compelling evidence for association. Regions identified through candidate gene approaches are in black, and those from GWA studies are in red. Regions shown in blue (WFS1, IFIH1, TCF7L2) were identified through genetic surveys which, though extensive, were not comprehensive. Note that in many cases it is not yet clear whether the genes listed are actually causal, since variants within the associated regions may be acting through other nearby genes
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