The cover image shows two of the scientists involved in the discovery of the so called 'fat gene' - FTO - in 2007, carrying 3kg of lard. This is the approximate additional amount of fat that European people with two copies of the 'fat' allele at the FTO gene carry compared with those with two copies of the 'thin' allele. There has been much discussion about the different effects of adiposity on diabetes and heart disease risk in people of South Asian origin compared with Europeans. In this issue, Yajnik et al. (52: 247-252) describe how the same FTO variants alter both BMI and type 2 diabetes risk in an Indian population. Unlike in Europeans however, the diabetes effect remains after accounting for the BMI effect.
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Cover credit: Peninsula Medical School