Previous studies from the region on Arab cohorts demonstrated this aspect by way of identifying novel risk loci for type 2 diabetes (T2DM) at either genome-wide significant or suggestive p-values for associations – such loci include KIF12, DVL1, EPB41L3, DTNB, DLL1, CTNNB1, JAG1, MLXIP, CDKLAL1, TCF7L2, KCTD8, GABRG1, GABRA2, COX7B2, GABRA4, ZNF106 and OTX2-AS1 (Supplementary Table S5)41–45. This evidence concerns the gene MLXIP and type 2 diabetes mellitus.