Genome-wide association study of food liking in 162,000 people uncovers the genetic bases of food liking.

Oral presentation

Sebastian May-Wilson ¹, Nana Matoba ^{2, 3}, Kaitlin Wade ⁴, Maria Pina Concas ⁵, Jouke-Jan Hottenga ⁶, Massimo Mangino ^{7, 8}, Maria G. Veldhuizen ¹², Cristina Menni ⁸, Eco de Geus ^{6, 10}, Paolo Gasparini ^{5, 9}, Nicholas J Timpson ⁴, James F. Wilson ^{1, 11}, Nicola Pirastu ¹

¹ Centre for Global Health Research, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Scotland UK, ² Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA, ³ UNC Neuroscience Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA, ⁴ MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (MRC-IEU), University of Bristol, England UK., ⁵ Institute for Maternal and Child Health – IRCCS ‘‘Burlo Garofolo”,Trieste, Italy, ⁶ Department of Biological Psychology, Faculty of Behavioral & Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, ⁷ Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London, London, UK, ⁸ NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust, London UK, ⁹ Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy, ¹⁰ Amsterdam Public Health research institute, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, the Netherlands, ¹¹ MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Scotland UK, ¹² Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin University

Variable preferences for different foods are among the main determinants of their intake and are influenced by many factors, including genetics. Despite considerable twins’ heritability, studies aimed at uncovering food-liking genetics have focused mostly on taste receptors. Here, we present the first results of a large-scale genome-wide association study of food liking conducted on 161,625 participants from UK Biobank. Liking was assessed over 139 specific foods using a 9-point hedonic scale. After performing GWAS, we used genetic correlations coupled with structural equation modelling to create a multi-level hierarchical map of food liking. We identified three main dimensions: high caloric foods defined as “Highly palatable”, strong-tasting foods ranging from alcohol to pungent vegetables, defined as “Learned” and finally “Low caloric” foods such as fruit and vegetables. The “Highly palatable” dimension was genetically uncorrelated from the other two, suggesting that two independent processes underlie liking high reward foods and the Learned/Low caloric ones. Genetic correlation analysis with the corresponding food consumption traits revealed a high correlation, while liking showed twice the heritability compared to consumption. For example, fresh fruit liking and consumption showed a genetic correlation of 0.7 with heritabilities of 0.1 and 0.05, respectively. GWAS analysis identified 1401 significant food-liking associations located in 173 genomic loci, with only 11 near taste or olfactory receptors. Genetic correlation with morphological and functional brain data (33,224 UKB participants) uncovers associations of the three food-liking dimensions with non-overlapping, distinct brain areas and networks, suggestive of separate neural mechanisms underlying the liking dimensions. In conclusion, we created a comprehensive and data-driven map of the genetic determinants and associated neurophysiological factors of food liking beyond taste receptor genes.