and rs2568958 are highly correlated with each other (r2 = 0.99), but moderately correlated with rs9424977 (r2 0.55)= in our samples. Conditional analysis including both rs9424977 and rs3101336 removed the significant associations (P = 0.175 for rs9424977 and 0.676 for rs3101336) and suggested that they represent the same association signal. Two SNPs located near the MC4R gene were associated with BMI in the meta-analysis (P = 0.018 for rs477181; P = 0.046 for rs4450508). The G-alleles of both rs477181 and rs4450508 showed a consistent trend of increased BMI across most of the cohorts. These two SNPs reside in the same LD block (D’ = 0.97), but are not highly correlated (r2 = 0.35) in our samples. Conditional analysis including rs477181 and rs4450508 removed the significant associations (P = 0.152 for rs477181 and 0.420 for rs4450508), again suggesting that they represent the same association signal. There was no evidence of heterogeneity of the effect sizes of all seven significantly associated SNPs across the six cohorts (Pheterogeneity>0.05). None of these SNPs showed significant association (all P>0.0011) after Bonferroni correction for multiple testing.
