Amerindians show association to obesity with adiponectin gene SNP45 and SNP276: population genetics of a food intake control and "thrifty" gene.

Adiponectin gene polymorphisms SNP45 and SNP276 have been related to metabolic syndrome (MS) and related pathologies, including obesity. However results of associations are contradictory depending on which population is studied. In the present study, these adiponectin SNPs are for the first time studied in Amerindians. Allele frequencies are obtained and comparison with obesity and other MS related parameters are performed. Amerindians were also defined by characteristic HLA genes. Our main results are: (1) SNP276 T is associated to low diastolic blood pressure in Amerindians, (2) SNP45 G allele is correlated with obesity in female but not in male Amerindians, (3) SNP45/SNP276 T/G haplotype in total obese/non-obese subjects tends to show a linkage with non-obese Amerindians, (4) SNP45/SNP276 T/T haplotype is linked to obese Amerindian males. Also, a world population study is carried out finding that SNP45 T and SNP276 T alleles are the most frequent in African Blacks and are found significantly in lower frequencies in Europeans and Asians. This together with the fact that there is a linkage of this haplotype to obese Amerindian males suggest that evolutionary forces related to famine (or population density in relation with available food) may have shaped world population adiponectin polymorphism frequencies.