on adiposity, we tested these variants for association with percentage fat mass in a meta-analysis of three cohorts of adults in which percent fat mass was assessed (EPIC-Norfolk, Botnia PPP and METSIM; total n = 18,279), and also in the children from ALSPAC in whom percent body fat mass was measured at age 11 (n = 4,876). As was seen previously for FTO and MC4R7,9, the BMI-increasing alleles at all new loci were also associated with or trended with increased fat mass in both the combined samples of adults and the childhood cohort (Supplementary Tables 6 and 8; each variant had a P value <0.1 in the appropriate direction in either adults, children or both). Thus, the associations with BMI are largely driven by effects on weight rather than height, and seem to act at least in part through an effect on adiposity.
