association of rs1477196 with obesity (P=6.0×10−9 based on an additive model) has previously been reported in a study of French adults,2 to our knowledge, the association of rs1861868 with BMI or obesity has not been described. In our analyses, a common haplotype defined by both SNPs (rs1861868, A allele; rs1477196, C allele) seems to jointly confer risk to increased BMI. This seems to be independent of rs9939609, the SNP originally found to be associated with BMI in multiple European white populations1,3 (Table 2). At least in the OOA, these SNPs may both be marking a common, yet unknown functional allele or may themselves have functional effects on body size through an as-yet undetermined mechanism. Further fine mapping with additional genotyping to help localize the true functional variant was beyond the scope of the current study.
