Genetic and Environmental Influences on Individual Sweet Preference Across Ancestry Groups in the U.S.

糖的过量摄入与肥胖和相关的慢性疾病有关，而肥胖和相关的慢性病又会导致约30万人死亡 仅在美国，每年就有5460亿美元的生命。主要卫生机构建议减少 摄入添加糖，但从甜味中获得的快乐可能会阻碍实现这一目标的努力。一个人的 对甜味的偏好是由遗传和环境因素决定的，因此， 了解这些因素是制定个性化减糖策略的关键一步 消费。而几个单核苷酸多态(SNPs)已经被发现与 在欧洲血统的个体中偏爱甜食，结果是否可以推广到其他 人口数量需要进一步调查。此外，来自同一祖先群体的个人但暴露在 对于不同的环境因素，甜味偏好也可能有所不同。这项研究(n=428)的第一个目标是 确定两个传统上代表性较低的祖先群体中与甜味相关的基因的差异 基因研究，居住在美国的非西班牙裔非洲人和非西班牙裔亚洲人祖先群体。我们关注 因为他们的添加糖摄入量分别最高和最低。我们的目标是 评估这些人的等位基因频率差异和甜味相关基因对甜味偏好的影响 两组。我们假设非洲人将有更高频率的甜味相关等位基因和 与亚洲人群相比，等位基因与甜味偏好之间的关联更强。第二个目标 将侧重于了解环境对甜食偏好的影响。环境对环境的影响 在美国出生的人(接触过这种食物)对甜食的偏好可能更明显 美国的环境(从出生起)和移民(暴露在不同的食物环境中)。移民可能会 保留传统的饮食习惯和做法，因此不太容易受到肥胖食物环境的影响 在美国，我们将比较土生土长的人和 来自目标1的同一组参与者中的移民，根据个人的甜食摄入量进行调整。我们预计 发现与同血统的美国出生的移民相比，移民对甜食的偏好较低 一群人。这项建议的总体目标是了解遗传和环境之间的相互作用。 影响甜味感知和人类食物偏好的因素，从而与NIDCD的战略目标保持一致 了解基因和环境是如何影响食物偏好的。这项研究将在伦敦金融城进行 纽约大学布鲁克林学院，一所种族/民族多元化的大学，79%的入学人数 有资格获得联邦政府或纽约州经济援助的本科生人数。如果获奖，我得到的支持 这个项目将给我提供一个机会来培训那些传统上在 生物医学研究。作为一名新教师，这个机会将有助于我从博士后过渡到 成为一名独立的研究人员，并使我成为感官营养领域的领导者。

Overconsumption of sugar is associated with obesity and related chronic disease, which in turn cost ~300,000 lives and ~$546 billion annually in the United States alone. Leading health agencies recommend reducing intake of added sugars, but pleasure from sweetness may hinder the effort to achieve this goal. A person’s preference for sweetness is determined by both genetic and environmental factors, and therefore, understanding these factors is a key step towards devising personalized strategies to reduce sugar consumption. While several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified to be associated with sweet preference within individuals of European ancestry, whether result can be generalizable to other populations warrants further investigation. Furthermore, individuals from the same ancestry group but exposed to different environmental factors may also differ in sweet preferences. The first aim of this study (n = 428) will determine the differences in sweet-related genes in two traditionally underrepresented ancestry groups in genetic research, the non-Hispanic African and non-Hispanic Asian ancestry groups living in the U.S. We focus on these groups because they have the highest and the lowest added sugars intake, respectively. We aim to assess the differences in allele frequencies and effects of sweet-related genes on sweet preference in these two groups. We hypothesize that the African group will have higher frequencies of sweet-related alleles and stronger associations between the alleles and sweet preference compared to the Asian group. The second aim will focus on understanding the effect of environment on sweet preference. The influence of environment on sweet preference may be more apparent between individuals who were born in the U.S. (exposed to the food environment in the U.S. since birth) and immigrants (exposed to different food environments). Immigrants may retain traditional food habits and practices and therefore are less prone to the obesogenic food environment in the U.S. We will compare the difference in sweet preference between individuals who are native-born vs. immigrants within the same group of participants from Aim 1, adjusting for individual sweet intake. We expect to see a lower sweet preference in immigrants compared to their U.S.-born counterparts of the same ancestry group. The overall goal for this proposal is to understand the interactions between genetics and environmental factors on sweet perception and human food preferences, thereby aligns with the NIDCD strategic goal to understand how genes and environment affect food preferences. This study will be conducted at the City University of New York – Brooklyn College, a racial/ethnically diverse university with 79% of the entering undergraduate population eligible for federate or New York state financial aid. If awarded, the support I receive from this project will afford me the opportunity to train students who are traditionally underrepresented in biomedical research. As a new faculty, this opportunity will aid my transition from a postdoctoral fellow to becoming an independent researcher and position me to becoming a leader in the sensory nutrition field.