Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 11, 2026

Targeted Next-generation Sequencing and Bioinformatics Pipeline to Evaluate Genetic Determinants of Constitutional Disease
Published on: April 4, 2018
Genetic variants in MTNR1B affecting insulin secretion
Karsten Müssig1, Harald Staiger, Fausto Machicao
1Division of Endocrinology, Diabetology, Angiology, Nephrology, and Clinical Chemistry, Department of Internal Medicine, Eberhard Karls University, Member of the German Centre for Diabetes Research (DZD), 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
Abstract:
The incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus has markedly increased worldwide over the past decades. Pancreatic beta-cell dysfunction as well as central and peripheral insulin resistance appears to be elementary features in the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Major environmental conditions predisposing to the development of type 2 diabetes are excessive food intake and sedentary life-style on the background of a genetic predisposition. Recent genome-wide association studies identified several novel type 2 diabetes risk genes, with impaired pancreatic beta-cell function as the underlying mechanism of increased diabetes risk in the majority of genes. Many of the novel type 2 diabetes risk genes, including MTNR1B which encodes one of the two known human melatonin receptors, were unexpected at first glance. However, previous animal as well as human studies already pointed to a significant impact of the melatonin system on the regulation of glucose homeostasis, in addition to its well known role in modulation of sleep and circadian rhythms. This brief review aims to give an overview of how alterations in the melatonin system could contribute to an increased diabetes risk, paying special attention to the role of melatonin receptors in pancreatic beta-cell function.
Related Concept Videos
Pharmacogenetic Phenotypes: Alterations in Pharmacokinetics, Drug Targets and Biologic Milieu
Principles of Pharmacogenetics: Types of Genetic Variants
Pharmacogenetics of Drug Targets: β₂-Adrenergic Receptors, Apo E, Thymidylate Synthase
Pharmacogenetics of Drug Transporters: P-Glycoprotein and Solute Carrier Transporters
Type II Diabetes I: Introduction
Comparing Copy Number Variations and SNPs
Copy number variations or CNVs are the structural variations that cover more than 1kb of DNA sequence. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), on the other hand, is a single nucleotide change or a point mutation that is found in more than 1%...
