Abstract
Marmite is a popular food eaten around the world, to which individuals have commonly considered themselves either “lovers” or “haters”. We aimed to determine whether this food preference has a genetic basis.Weperformed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for Marmite taste preference using genotype and questionnaire data froma cohort of 261 healthy adults. We found 1 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associated with Marmite taste preferencethat reached genome-wide significance (p<5x10-8) in our GWAS analyses. We found another 4 SNPsassociated with Marmite taste preference that reached genome-wide significance (p<5x10-8) in at leastoneGWAS and/or for at least one phenotype analysed. Moreover, we identified 10 additional SNPs potentially associated with Marmite taste preference through candidate gene analysis. Our results indicate that there is a genetic basis to Marmite taste preference and we have identified 15 genetic markers for this trait. Overall, we conclude that Marmite tastepreference is a complex human trait influenced by multiple genetic markers, as well as the environment.
Marmite taste preference is a complex human trait with many factors influencing whether an individual loves or hates Marmite.
The relative contribution of genetics versus environment (ie. heritability) for Marmite taste preference is unknown.
The genetic contribution to Marmite taste preference involves multiple genetic markers each contributing a small amount (ie. the trait is polygenic). There is not one single Marmite gene with a large contribution like in thecase of the TAS2R38gene and bitter taste perception.
We have found a total of 15 SNPs associated with Marmite taste preference: 5 SNPs by a genetic-association screen atgenome-wide significance, and 10 SNPs by a candidate gene approach at nominal significance.
We did not find an association between the TAS2R38bitter taste receptor gene and Marmite taste preference.
It is important to independently replicate the findings of this study in order to validate these genetic markers and get a more accurate idea of their true effect on Marmite taste preference.
