We did not observe any evidence for a second independent signal within the broader 16q12.2/FTO region. This finding is consistent with the only other AA study that extended the fine-mapping approach beyond intron 1 to the entire FTO gene including 262 tagSNPs in 1,485 subjects [30]. However, even within our substantially larger study of over 20,000 AAs, power to identify second independent signals may still have been limited, particularly for less frequent variants or variants with weaker effects, given the increased burden of multiple comparisons that needs to be adjusted for when testing all SNPs across the entire region.
