Genetic Contributions to Type 2 Diabetes Risk: is large-scale DNA sequencing worthwhile?

Abstract

Type 2 Diabetes is a serious metabolic disorder that is rapidly becoming more common throughout the world. The causes of diabetes are complex, involving aspects of diet and the environment; together with genetic risk factors. Over the last decade, geneticists have identified more than 100 genes with common variants that impact risk, but these variants collectively explain only a small fraction of heritability.? Finding less common variation of larger effect by DNA sequencing studies has begun, but further progress has been slow.? I will discuss recent DNA sequencing studies including more than 40,000 subjects. More briefly, I will discuss two of the most intriguing recent developments in the field, involving epigenetics (environmentally induced, and partially heritable, modifications to DNA) and the gut microbiome (the vast bacterial community that plays a central role in human health and metabolism).