Summary: A large-scale genetic analysis has identified roughly 500 genes that influence dietary preferences. The study highlights how genes involved in sensory systems — taste, smell and texture perception — and in brain reward pathways can shape which foods people prefer. These findings could inform personalized or precision nutrition approaches that account for an individual’s genetic sensory profile.
Using data from the UK Biobank, researchers performed a phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) across hundreds of thousands of participants to isolate genetic signals directly related to diet. By separating direct genetic effects on food choices from indirect effects driven by health conditions or socioeconomic factors, the team identified genes more strongly tied to eating behavior than to other lifestyle traits.
Key facts:
- About 500 genes were linked to food preferences; many relate to sensory pathways such as taste, smell and texture perception.
- The analysis drew on the UK Biobank’s genetic and phenotypic data from roughly 500,000 people, enabling a large PheWAS to detect modest genetic influences amid strong environmental effects.
- Approximately 300 genes were directly associated with specific foods, while nearly 200 genes related to broader dietary patterns. These gene sets could help build sensory genetic profiles for targeted nutrition strategies.
“Some genes we identified are related to sensory pathways — including those for taste, smell, and texture — and may also increase the reward response in the brain,” said Joanne Cole, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, who led the research. She noted that identifying genes with clear links to sensory perception could allow researchers to predict food likings and dislikes from genetic information.
The study employed the UK Biobank’s extensive dataset to run a PheWAS, testing how individual genetic variants associate with thousands of traits and behaviors, including dietary intake. Because environmental influences such as culture, socioeconomic status and food availability strongly shape what people eat, very large sample sizes are required to detect genetic contributors. The UK Biobank’s combination of genetic, health and socioeconomic data made it possible to distinguish direct genetic effects on diet from indirect associations caused by other conditions, like diabetes or high cholesterol, that themselves influence food choices.
To address potential confounding, the team applied computational approaches to remove variants whose dietary associations were better explained by other traits. This filtering produced a refined set of roughly 300 genes connected to intake of specific foods and nearly 200 genes tied to dietary patterns — examples include overall fish consumption or fruit intake. The researchers observed that genes linked to dietary patterns often had more indirect effects, underscoring the importance of considering broader health and social factors when interpreting pattern-level associations.
These results represent an important step toward precision nutrition. By combining genetic information with sensory biology, it may become possible to adapt dietary recommendations to improve adherence and long-term health outcomes. For example, if a particular olfactory receptor variant makes someone more responsive to fruit aromas and increases the brain’s reward response, researchers could screen for natural or safe synthetic compounds that interact with that receptor. Adding such compounds to healthy foods might make them more appealing to people with matching genetic profiles.
In the near term, the team is characterizing the newly identified genes to understand their biological roles more clearly and searching for additional variants that directly affect food preference. Translational research directions include testing whether tailoring flavor profiles of therapeutic diets to a person’s genetics improves compliance or whether food formulations can be optimized to match genetically influenced sensory preferences.
Cole will present these findings at NUTRITION 2023, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition. The study demonstrates how large, well-annotated population cohorts can reveal subtle genetic contributions to complex behaviors like eating, even when those behaviors are dominated by environmental influences.
About this diet and genetics research news
Author: Nancy Lamontagne
Source: American Society for Nutrition
Contact: Nancy Lamontagne – American Society for Nutrition
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Findings presented at NUTRITION 2023