Wednesday, March 11, 2009

FATSO (FTO) Gene

At my new job I'm afforded some great and unusual opportunities. One that arrised a few weeks ago was genetic testing for the obesity gene which test your disposition to be heavier than the average population. I was naturally curious to know whether I was "doomed" or not and I debated whether I even wanted to know or not. My co-workers were also hedging on the decision. The gene is named FTO but goes by FaTsO gene. (How comforting). 

Genetic Lesson

If you know a little about genetics it is understood that your genes are comprised of half coming from dad and half from mom. Both of my parents, if they were recessive FTO carriers, could have not passed on any kind of predisposition to me or if they were dominant FTO then I didn't have a chance in heck to begin with.

Well, to make a long story short it looks like I won the lottery, I have inherited the gene from both my parents. Great!? Of course my parents deny it :) I can only guess that at the very least they are both recessive FTO carriers and I just happened to receive the FTO gene for both of them. Now what do I do with this information? Should I call up Ben and Jerry and drown my sorrows? Don't get me wrong I was bummed when I opened the envelope but what can be done, my genes are my genes and I have to do the best I can with what I was given. All in all I'm glad I found out so I can be aware of my predisposition.

5 comments:

Kristalyn said...

I want to be tested...that would give me an excuse for how come I'm not losing weight...or maybe it's all that cookie dough I just ate...

Stephanie said...

hmmm... that's very interesting. You switched jobs? what's the new job? So Wouldn't Iris have the gene too? how would that work? She is like tiny though? just wondering.

Jessica said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jessica said...

Steph-

They also spoke about a study about the skinny/fat twin syndrome. The name of the study "Global Transcript Profiles of Fat in Monozygotic Twins Discordant for BMI: Pathways behind Acquired Obesity" Here's the link http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050051&ct=1 It's a misnomer that identical twins are just that exactly identical. After separation from one egg tons of systems continued developing on their own and mutations do happen. These mutations are not usually apparent, Iris and I are functioning humans, but they are inconsistencies in our systems.

Kristi said...

Bummer! That sounds like my kind of luck. Millions of different genes out there and you end up with the FTO. I ended up with the itchy, red, splotchy skin issue that is so rare there is no research about it. Yeah for me! I guess everyone's got an unlucky gene somewhere. (Some people even got a FEW unlucky genes!)

Are you guys coming for the wedding? Do you have travel plans yet?