Figure 2.
Effects of WHRadjBMI-associated SNPs on body fat percentage. (A) We investigated the impact of the 346 WHRadjBMI index SNPs (discovered in the combined analysis) on BF% in 449 001 UK Biobank individuals. Of the 346 SNPs, 59 (17.1%) are associated with BF% (P < 0.05/346 = 1.44 × 10−4, dark grey points). We oriented the effects of the SNPs to the WHRadjBMI-increasing effect and found that 34 of the 59 BF%-associated SNPs associate with increased BF%, while 25 of the 59 associate with decreased BF%, indicating that WHRadjBMI-associated SNPs can affect BF% in both directions. (B) Given the sex-dimorphic signature observed in WHRadjBMI-associated SNPs and the increased number of SNPs with stronger effects on WHRadjBMI in women, we investigated the effect of the 105 sex-dimorphic index SNPs identified from the three meta-analyses (in the combined sample, in women only, in men only) on BF% in men or women separately. Of the 105 dimorphic SNPs, 97 were female specific (aquamarine points) and conferred a stronger effect on WHRadjBMI (on average) compared to the eight male-specific SNPs (orange points). We plot the 105 sex-dimorphic SNPs by their effect on BF% in men (x-axis) and in women (y-axis). Of the 105 SNPs, 56 associate with BF% (P < 0.05/05 = 4.8 × 10−3). Despite the fact that these SNPs confer different effects on WHRadjBMI within sex-specific groups, we found that they confer relatively similar effects in BF% in sex-specific groups. All points are scaled in size to their strength of association in BF%.