Initially, in the combined ancestry and sex analysis, we identified four novel signals not located near known loci of obesity (BHLHE40-AS1, PLAS2R1, PIWL1 and CDHR1) and six novel signals in or near known obesity loci (PDGFC, SMARCAD1, TENM2, ZNF184, PLCL2, and SLC39A11) at genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10 − 8) (S5 Table). Here, PLCL2 is linked to obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.