So how do the findings on the biochemical function of FTO relate to the association between FTO SNPs and obesity? In truth, we still do not know. In particularly, little is known about if or how the FTO risk alleles are influencing the FTO protein. Considering their intronic location, they are unlikely to cause functional mutations, but are more likely to be playing a subtle transcriptional regulatory role, either to up- or down-regulate FTO expression.
