How baby’s genes influence birth weight and later life disease

New research has identified genetic differences that help to explain why some babies are born bigger or smaller than others and how they provide an important link between an individual's early growth and their chances of developing later life disease. The large-scale study and involved more than 160 international researchers from 17 countries who are members of the Early Growth Genetics (EGG) Consortium. It has been known for some time that babies whose birthweight is well below, or well above, average have a markedly increased risk of diabetes many decades later. Until now, many researchers have assumed that this link reflects the long-term impact of the nutritional environment in which the fetus develops: in other words, that events in early life can 'set up? an individual's body in ways that make them more prone to disease in later life. Genetic differences To investigate this further researchers analysed genetic differences throughout the genomes (complete set of DNA, including all of its genes) of nearly 154,000 people from across the world. Around half of these came from the UK Biobank cohort. By matching the genetic profiles of these people to information on birth weight, the researchers could identify sixty regions of the genome that were clearly driving differences in birthweight.