Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have reproducibly associated variants within introns of FTO with increased risk for obesity and type-2 diabetes (T2D) 1–3. While the molecular mechanisms linking these noncoding variants with obesity are not immediately obvious, subsequent studies in mice demonstrated that FTO expression levels influence body mass and composition phenotypes 4–6. Yet, no direct connection between the obesity-associated variants and FTO expression or function has been made 7–9. Here, we show that the obesity-associated noncoding sequences within FTO are functionally connected, at megabase distances, with the homeobox gene IRX3. The obesity-associated FTO region directly interacts with the promoters of IRX3 as well as FTO in the human, mouse, and zebrafish genomes. Furthermore, long-range enhancers within this region recapitulate aspects of IRX3 expression, suggesting that the obesity-associated interval belongs to the regulatory landscape of IRX3. Supporting this, obesity-associated SNPs are associated with expression of IRX3, but not FTO, in human brains. Directly linking IRX3 expression with regulation of body mass and composition, Irx3-deficient mice exhibit a 25–30% reduction in body weight, primarily through the loss of fat mass and increase in basal metabolic rate with browning of white adipose tissue. Furthermore, hypothalamic expression of a dominant negative form of Irx3 reproduces the metabolic phenotypes of Irx3-deficient mice. Our data posit that IRX3 is a functional long-range target of obesity-associated variants within FTO, and represents a novel determinant of body mass and composition.

Vertebrates have greatly elaborated the basic chordate body plan and evolved highly distinctive genomes that have been sculpted by two whole-genome duplications. Here we sequence the genome of the Mediterranean amphioxus ( Branchiostoma lanceolatum ) and characterize DNA methylation, chromatin accessibility, histone modifications and transcriptomes across multiple developmental stages and adult tissues to investigate the evolution of the regulation of the chordate genome. Comparisons with vertebrates identify an intermediate stage in the evolution of differentially methylated enhancers, and a high conservation of gene expression and its cis -regulatory logic between amphioxus and vertebrates that occurs maximally at an earlier mid-embryonic phylotypic period. We analyse regulatory evolution after whole-genome duplications, and find that—in vertebrates—over 80% of broadly expressed gene families with multiple paralogues derived from whole-genome duplications have members that restricted their ancestral expression, and underwent specialization rather than subfunctionalization. Counter-intuitively, paralogues that restricted their expression increased the complexity of their regulatory landscapes. These data pave the way for a better understanding of the regulatory principles that underlie key vertebrate innovations.