rs988712*G, which is located 113,058 base pairs downstream of the established obesity locus BDNF on chromosome 11 [8], showed consistent effect direction and was significantly associated with obesity in the French cohort 5 (P = 0.0020), but not in the German cohort 6 (P = 0.135). Here, BDNF is linked to obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.