Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have paved the way for future studies of human obesity by identifying almost all the genes that regulate fat storage and metabolism in the roundworm.

Reporting in the journal Nature, the researchers said that among the thousands of genes in the Caenorhabditis elegans they found about 400 related to fat production and storage.

They identified these genes in C. elegans by inactivateing genes one at a time, and then looking for changes in the worms' fat content.

About 300 of these genes, when turned off, reduced body fat and about 100 genes, when inactivated, increased fat storage.

Scientists frequently conduct basic experiments with C. elegans because they can fit 100,000 on a lab dish, and they reproduce within four days. Humans share about half of the roundworm's 19,000 genes.

Whether the same gene knockout technique will work in humans is unclear, but the worm studies should allow identification of many genes related to fat production and storage in humans more rapidly, the researchers said.

Other sources: Nature