Obesity: Again, blame it to the genes

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have found a gene responsible for turning a plate of pasta into fat, offering new clues about how the body metabolizes carbohydrates and how they contribute to obesity.
The gene, called DNA-PK, appears to regulate the process in the liver that turns carbohydrates into fat, the University of California, Berkeley team reported on Thursday in the journal Cell.
"We hope that this research will one day help people eat bread, pasta and rice and not worry about getting fat," Roger Wong, a graduate student who worked on the study, said in a statement.
When they bred mice with a disabled version of this gene, the mice stayed slim even when fed the equivalent of an all-you-can-eat pasta buffet.
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Genes determine cancer risk of smokers?

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Certain changes in a gene called ADAM33 can determine whether a smoker is likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or not, new research indicates.
Only about a quarter of long-term smokers develop COPD, the authors note. ADAM33 has been shown in previous studies to be associated with asthma and overreactive airways. This relationship, however, has not been studied in tobacco smokers who are susceptible to COPD.
In the new study, the research team looked for small genetic changes or "polymorphisms" in ADAM33 in 880 long-term heavy smokers.
Two hundred eighty-seven of the study subjects had COPD and 311 did not. All of them were older than age 50 years and all had been smoking at least a pack of cigarettes each day for 20 years. Ninety-seven percent of the subjects were male.
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Gambler? Blame it To the Genes!

Reuters reports that genes important for mood and risk-taking likely played a clear role, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.
They found surprisingly clear-cut links between two genes and the willingness of people to gamble with money.
The study, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE, supports others that point to brain chemicals and their roles in financial risk-taking.
The genes involve dopamine, a brain chemical known as a neurotransmitter linked with movement and risk-taking, and serotonin, a neurotransmitter important in controlling mood.
People with the "high-risk" version of the dopamine gene tended to invest in risky but potentially lucrative propositions, while those with the "high anxiety" version of serotonin managed their money more carefully, Camelia Kuhnen and Joan Chiao of Northwestern University in Chicago reported.