Candidate genes were selected by the investigators via a consensus process. First, genes residing under reported eating disorders linkage peaks were identified using SLEP [Konneker et al., 2008]. Second, an exhaustive search of the literature was conducted to identify plausible candidate genes based on previous findings reported in the eating disorders literature, published findings in other related disorders, and genes involved in pathways thought to be implicated in AN. This inclusive list was limited by selecting genes with evidence of expression in the brain and by genes that were shown to be estrogen responsive in microarray studies. Based on the RefSeq data base [Pruitt et al., 2007] accessed in 3/2007, these combined approaches yielded a list of 247 genes which were then necessarily prioritized by consensus to match available genotyping budget and winnowed to 190 plausible candidate genes. See supplemental material for the complete gene list.
