Energy Trade-off and 4 Extreme Human Body Types

Abstract

Background: Resource trade-off theory suggests that increased performance on a given trait comes at the cost of decreased performance on other traits.

Methods: Growth data from 1889 subjects (996 girls) were used from the GrowUp1974 Gothenburg study. Energy Trade-Off (ETO) between height and weight for individuals with extreme body types was characterized using a novel ETO-Score (ETOS). Four extreme body types were defined based on height and ETOI at early adulthood: tall-slender, short-stout, short-slender, and tall-stout; their growth trajectories assessed from ages 0.5-17.5 years.A GWAS using UK BioBank data was conducted to identify gene variants associated with height, BMI, and for the first time with ETOS.

Results: Height and ETOS trajectories show a two-hit pattern with profound changes during early infancy and at puberty for tall-slender and short-stout body types. Several loci (including FTO, ADCY3, GDF5, ) and pathways were identified by GWAS as being highly associated with ETOS. The most strongly associated pathways were related to "extracellular matrix," "signal transduction," "chromatin organization," and "energy metabolism."

Conclusions: ETOS represents a novel anthropometric trait with utility in describing body types. We discovered the multiple genomic loci and pathways probably involved in energy trade-off.

Keywords: UK Biobank; energetic trade-off; energy metabolism; extreme body types; growth trajectories.