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Salivary amylase gene (AMY1) copy number variation has only a minor correlation with body composition in Chinese adults

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Abstract

Background

According to the WHO, about 39% of the global adult population were overweight or obese in 2016. Obesity has high heritability, with more than 1000 variants so far identified. There have been reports indicating that salivary amylase gene (AMY1) copy number was one of these variants, yet its association with obesity remains controversial.

Objective

Our research aimed to provide more evidence on the relationship of AMY1 copy number variation (CNV) with body mass index (BMI) and body composition.

Methods

We recruited 133 Chinese adults (65 males, 68 females, 18–25 years old) with normal fasting blood glucose and blood pressure levels. 19 males were selected for a 10-week intervention to change body composition. After anthropometric measurements, BMI was calculated, and body composition was measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). For the 19 selected participants, we collected their height, weight, and body composition data one more time after intervention. All participants were required to leave their saliva samples and their AMY1 copy number was determined by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR.

Results

We failed to find any significant difference in BMI and body composition between different copy number groups. Only a weak correlation was found between body muscle mass and body fat mass. After adjusted for height and weight, AMY1 CNV explained 4.83% of the variance and one single increase in AMY1 CNV can increase 0.214 kg of the body muscle mass, while one single increase in AMY1 CNV can decrease 0.217 kg of the body fat mass and explained 4.69% of the variance.

Conclusions

As a genetic factor, the AMY1 gene copy number variation has only a minor correlation with BMI and body composition, and its effect can easily be hidden by other factors such as individual diet and exercise habit.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, **nming Zhang, upon reasonable request.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. **nming Zhang, Colin Moran and Ruiyuan Wang have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sport Science, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China

    **nming Zhang

  2. Department of Exercise Physiology, Bei**g Sport University, Bei**g City, China

    Ruiyuan Wang & Yue Zhou

  3. School of Health Sciences and Sport, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland, UK

    Colin Moran & Naomi Brooks

Authors
  1. **nming Zhang
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  2. Colin Moran
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  3. Ruiyuan Wang
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  4. Yue Zhou
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  5. Naomi Brooks
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to **nming Zhang.

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Conflict of interest

Zhang **nming, Colin Moran, Wang Ruiyuan, Zhou Yue and Naomi Brooks declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This study had been approved by the School of Sport Research Ethics Committee at University of Stirling (code SSREC number #880). Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Zhang, X., Moran, C., Wang, R. et al. Salivary amylase gene (AMY1) copy number variation has only a minor correlation with body composition in Chinese adults. Genes Genom 45, 935–943 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-023-01381-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-023-01381-x

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