each additional minor allele,58 which is substantially less than in European ancestry populations and might reflect the fact that BMI represents a somewhat different adiposity phenotype in different Asians. Effect sizes of East and South Asians were not significantly different, but the minor allele frequency was lower in East Asians (Chinese Hans and Koreans: 12-14%; Japanese and Filipinos: 18-20%) than in South Asians (30-33%), which both are lower than in Europeans (42%) (Table 1). As a consequence of the smaller effect size and lower minor allele frequency (Figure 2), FTO SNPs in Asian populations explain less of the variation in BMI (0.16–0.20%) than in European ancestry populations.58
