Among eating disorders, anorexia nervosa still lacks well-established treatment, and it has been reported to be associated with a high mortality rate. Many aspects of its brain pathology remain unclear, and research methodologies are currently limited. Epidemiological studies suggest that genetic factors play a role in the onset of eating disorders, and the search for genome variants associated with the onset risk is advancing, backed by the development of genome analysis technology. In this article, we introduce research on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and copy number variants (CNVs) among these variants. These genomic studies also show that there are common genetic factors between eating disorders (anorexia nervosa) and other psychiatric disorders. In the CNV study conducted by the authors, it was suggested that variants were enriched in synapse-related genes, suggesting a possible association with synaptic dysfunction. In the future, large-scale genome analyses will hopefully clarify the genetic factors of eating disorders, and advanced understanding of the pathology will be achieved through analyses of model organisms.
 Authors' abstract