Posted by 
Scientists from University College London and Imperial College London in the United Kingdom have identified new genetic locations that might make some people more prone to developing type 2 diabetes.
Researchers were aware of 76 chromosomal locations before this discovery New research analyzed the human genome further and found an additional 111.
Dr. Nikolas Maniatis of University College London’s (UCL) Genetics, Evolution, and Environment department, together with Dr. Toby Andrew of Imperial College London’s Department of Genomics of common disease.
Using a UCL-developed method of genetic mapping, Maniatis and team examined large samples of European and African American people, summarizing 5,800 cases of type 2 diabetes and almost 9,700 healthy controls.
They found that the new location together with the old one control the expression of more than 266 genes surrounding the genetic location of the disease.
Most of the newly discovered location were found outside of the coding regions of these genes, but within so-called hotspots that change the expression of these genes in body fat.
Of the newly identified 111 locations 93 were found in European and African American population samples.
After identifying genetic location, the next step was to use deep sequence analysis to try to determine the genetic mutations responsible for the disease.
Gene mapping finds areas associated with diabetes – causing genetic location
Maniatis and colleagues used deep sequencing to further examine three of the cross-population locations with the aim of identifying the genetic mutations.
They then examined different sample of 94 Europeans with type 2 diabetes, as well as 94 healthy controls. Researchers
discovered that the three locations coincided with chromosomal regions that regulate gene expression, contain epigenetic markers, and present genetic mutations that have been suggested to cause type 2 diabetes.