The influence of environmental factors on the prevalence of «thrifty genotypes» as predictors of metabolic disorders

Abstract

"Thrifty genotypes" are the risk factors for obesity and lipid and energy metabolism disorders. Hence, it is important to assess the contribution of environmental factors that influenced the thrifty genotypes' population distribution. Aim of the study - systematization and critical analysis of published data on population variability, relationship with climatic and environmental characteristics, association with traditional types of lifestyles, and nutrition for the «thrifty genotypes» of APOE, UCP1, UCP3, and FTO genes. Material and methods. The selection of publications from the last 20-25 years presented in the PubMed database (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) was carried out by the keywords of the generalizing rank (thrifty genotype, thrifty phenotype, drifty genotype), then narrowed down to the APOE, UCP, FTO. The final set includes publications that consider the association of genotypes with the ecological conditions of the population. Results. Our analysis of publications has confirmed the ethnic and geographical variability in the allele distribution of APOE, UCP1, UCP3, and FTO genes. However, the nature of this variability hasn't been studied sufficiently; the contribution of individual factors of the natural and anthropogenic environment remains unclear. The information on the geographical distribution of the APOE gene alleles is quite complete, while the data on the «thrifty genotypes» of UCP and FTO require further study. Conclusion. The frequency of the UCP1 and UCP3 alleles associated with effective non-contractile thermogenesis is increased in populations adapted to low temperatures. However, the population-geographical pattern of the UCP thrifty genotypes' variability as a determinant of increased fat deposition has been studied insufficiently. The carriage of FTO mutant variants increases the adaptability of groups with a traditional lifestyle and diet but is maladaptive in an urbanized environment. The influence of natural and ecological conditions on the formation of the FTO allele geographical distribution requires more attention. The results obtained allow us to propose the included groups' ranking according to the past environmental management and nutrition will facilitate the search for ecological factors that influenced the geographical distribution of genotypes (and, accordingly, populations with different levels of risk of metabolic disorders).