New research offers more evidence that genes play a significant role in obesity.

The findings may help explain why some people are more likely to put on extra pounds and develop obesity-linked conditions, the investigators said.

The researchers analyzed genetic samples from more than 300,000 people and identified more than 140 locations across their sets of DNA that play a role in obesity. They also pinpointed new biological pathways that play important roles in body weight and fat distribution.

The findings appear in two companion papers published Feb. 11 in the journal Nature.

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This is the first step toward identifying individual genes involved in body shape and size, the researchers said. The proteins produced by the genes could offer targets for the development of new drugs to fight obesity.

One of the papers focused on genes that affect where fat is stored in the body, which affects health risk. For example, people with more belly fat are more likely to have metabolic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease than those with more fat in the hips or distributed throughout the body.

"We need to know these genetic locations because different fat deposits pose different health risks," senior author Karen Mohlke, a professor of genetics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, said in a University of Michigan Health System news release.

"If we can figure out which genes influence where fat is deposited, it could help us understand the biology that leads to various health conditions, such as insulin resistance/diabetes, metabolic syndrome and heart disease," she explained.

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More genetic links to obesity discovered

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