Research
Hormonal
Host genetic variants in the FHIT, TDRG1, and ELAVL4 genes are significantly associated with the abundance of specific adiposity-linked fecal microbes, suggesting host genetics mediate the microbiome-obesity link.
This finding explains why two people might have different gut bacteria for the same diet, due to their genetics. It does not currently offer a direct action for weight loss but highlights that personalized medicine approaches may be necessary for microbiome-based therapies.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
We observe significant associations of adiposity-OTU abundances with host genetic variants in the FHIT, TDRG1 and ELAVL4 genes, suggesting a potential role for host genes to mediate the link between the fecal microbiome and obesity.
Why this rating
Strong statistical association, but causal mechanism remains unclear and requires further functional validation.
Source
Heritable components of the human fecal microbiome are associated with visceral fat
Michelle Beaumont et al. · Genome biology · 2016
DOI 10.1186/s13059-016-1052-7
cohort · n=3666Cited 245×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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