In order to identify which of the many promising polymorphisms were eventually most important as susceptibility loci for type 2 diabetes, the three investigations performed a meta-analysis of their data. All three publications eventually reported tables of “confirmed” susceptibility loci of type 2 diabetes. We examined all 11 genetic variants that have been listed in these tables as “confirmed” loci. Eight of those variants appear in the “confirmed” lists of all 3 publications; while rs9300039 is listed in the table of confirmed loci by FUSION investigators only [10]; rs564398 (a second marker in the CDKN2B gene besides the rs10811661 that is considered confirmed by all three publications) is listed in the table of confirmed loci by the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium investigators only [13]; and FTO rs8050136 (an obesity risk variant, as discussed below) is listed in the table of confirmed loci by the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium and FUSION only [10], [13]. These differences reflect simply minor differences in interpretation and listing of the same results between the three teams of investigators.
