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NEW YORK – Some children get severely obese because they lack particular chunks of DNA, which kicks their hunger into overdrive, researchers report.
The British researchers checked the DNA of 300 children who’d become very fat, on the order of 220 pounds by age 10. They looked for deletions or extra copies of DNA segments.
They found evidence that several rare deletions may promote obesity, including one kind they studied further and found in less than 1 percent of about 1,200 severely obese children.
That deletion, on chromosome 16, apparently causes trouble because it removes a gene that the brain needs to respond to the appetite-controlling hormone leptin, said Dr. Sadaf Farooqi of Cambridge University.
In her study, children with a chromosome 16 DNA deletion “have a very strong drive to eat,” said Farooqi, who co-led the research. “They’re very, very hungry, they always want to eat.”
The work, reported online Sunday by the journal Nature, has already produced a real-world payoff. Farooqi said four children with the chromosome 16 deletion had drawn the attention of British child welfare authorities, who blamed the parents for overfeeding them.
“We were able to intervene” and get the parents of two children off the hook, and the other two cases are under discussion, she said.
That’s happened before when the scientists uncovered genetic causes for severe childhood obesity, she said.
“It’s a slightly unusual outcome of our research, but one we think is very important,” she said.
While scientists had previously discovered particular genes that promote obesity when damaged, the new work looked at larger chunks of DNA that can span several genes. The chromosome 16 deletion includes nine genes.
Eric Ravussin, an obesity expert at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., who wasn’t involved in the study, said the work provides “a gold mine of information.” That’s because it identifies specific chromosome areas that scientists can explore to discover obesity-related genes, he said.

Doug Martin had four touchdown runs and the sixth-ranked Broncos beat New Mexico State 42-7 on Saturday to finish unbeaten for the second consecutive season.
Kellen Moore threw for 272 yards and a score for Boise State (13-0, 8-0 Western Athletic), which finished 12-0 last year but was left out of the Bowl Championship Series. The Broncos will have to wait until Sunday night to see if they made it into one of the big-money bowls this season.
Boise State fans stormed the field after time ran out, turning the blue turf into a sea of orange and blue as they celebrated the Broncos’ second consecutive WAC title and 10th straight win over New Mexico State. Boise State has won 26 straight regular-season games overall.
Trevor Walls had a 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter for the Aggies (3-10, 1-7), who managed just 49 yards passing and 191 yards total.
Martin had two 4-yard TD runs and Jeremy Avery ran 9 yards for another score as Boise State reached the end zone three times in the second quarter to take a 28-0 lead. Martin tacked on a 2-yard touchdown run and a 56-yard score in the third.
Avery had 16 carries for 86 yards and Martin finished with eight for 83 for Boise State, which finished with 288 yards on the ground.
Moore connected with Titus Young on a 47-yard play in the first quarter for his 39th touchdown pass of the season. Moore, the nation’s most efficient passer, finished 19 of 30.
The Broncos nearly shut out the Aggies for the third straight time but fumbled deep inside their own territory to set up Walls’ TD.
Seth Smith also had 35 carries for 114 yards for New Mexico State.

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PHILADELPHIA (AP)—Placido Polanco(notes) is putting aside his Gold Glove and switching positions to have a chance at winning a championship.
Polanco returned to the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday, agreeing to an $18 million, three-year contract.
The 34-year-old free agent won Gold Gloves at second base for the Detroit Tigers in 2007 and this year, but will shift to third base, which hasn’t been his primary position since 2002. He replaces Pedro Feliz(notes), who became a free agent after the Phillies declined his $5.5 million option.
“I always wanted to be here, I never wanted to leave,” Polanco said. “One of the reasons I wanted to come back is because it’s pretty obvious the team is committed to winning. And I want to win. That’s it. They asked me if I was willing to play another position and I was like, ‘Sure.’ I can play third base. I played in college, in St. Louis and I also played some third here. I feel pretty confident about it.”
Polanco first joined the Phillies in the trade that sent Scott Rolen(notes) to St. Louis in July 2002. He hit .297 with 38 homers and 160 RBIs in parts of four seasons in Philadelphia. Once Chase Utley(notes) become the regular second baseman, Polanco’s role was reduced. He was traded to Detroit in June 2005 for reliever Ugueth Urbina and infielder Ramon Martinez(notes).
Polanco batted .285 for the Tigers last season with 31 doubles, 10 homers and 72 RBIs. He hit .341 and made the All-Star team in 2007.
“For him to come back to Philadelphia to change positions, it’s just one of the things he’s about,” Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. “He’s not only a tremendous professional and a championship-type player, but he’s a championship-type person, and that’s what we’re trying to do here, bring championship-type people, both talent-wise and personnel-wise.”
Polanco gets a $500,00 signing bonus, $5 million next season, $5.25 million in 2011 and $6.25 million in 2012. The deal includes a $5.5 million mutual option for 2013 with a $1 million buyout.
“The Phillies were always my first choice,” he said. “I played here, I know most of the guys here, I know the city. And they have a pretty good team that’s committed to win. I thank all of the other teams that expressed interest in me, but the Phillies were always my first choice.”
Polanco is a .303 hitter with 90 homers, 579 RBIs and 71 stolen bases in 12 seasons.
He joins a potent lineup that features five All-Stars—Utley, Shane Victorino(notes), Ryan Howard(notes), Jayson Werth(notes) and Raul Ibanez(notes)—and former MVP Jimmy Rollins(notes). He’s an ideal No. 2 hitter, but that’s been Victorino’s spot in the order.
“I want to win and you look around and we have a lot of great players,” Polanco said. “It seems like you could flip this lineup around and it would still be good, you know? Whatever Charlie wants me to do, I’d be more than happy to do it. I just know everyone here plays to win. Chase, Victorino, Rollins, Howard, everybody.”
The NL champions also agreed to a $750,000, one-year contract with infielder Juan Castro(notes), who hit .277 with one home run and nine RBIs in 57 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers last season.
The 37-year-old Castro replaces utilityman Eric Bruntlett(notes), who became a free agent. Castro made 19 starts at shortstop, eight at second base and two at third base, while also appearing in left field for two games.
Castro’s contract includes a $700,000 salary next year, and the deal has a $750,000 club option for 2011 with a $50,000 buyout.
“In Juan Castro, we have a versatile guy who can play multiple positions and is coming off a year in which he swung the bat fairly well,” Amaro said. “We’re very happy to add him to our club, as he will give Charlie options.”

NDIANAPOLIS (AP)—Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney(notes) returned to practice Thursday and cornerback Kelvin Hayden(notes) worked out for the second straight day, meaning both could play Sunday against Tennessee.
Freeney missed last week’s game with an abdominal injury. Hayden has missed four straight games with a knee injury.
Indy had 23 players on its practice report, and seven missed both practice days.
Two players out were receiver Anthony Gonzalez(notes), who hasn’t played since the season-opener, and kicker Adam Vinatieri(notes), who has missed the last six games.
Other key players who sat out both days include running back Donald Brown(notes) (chest), defensive tackle Keyunta Dawson(notes) (knee) and left tackle Charlie Johnson(notes) (foot).

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ATLANTA (AP)—Roddy White(notes) looks forward to seeing Michael Vick(notes). Just don’t expect the Falcons receiver to don another T-shirt showing his support for No. 7.
“I’ve got to be locked in,” White said Wednesday, breaking into a hearty laugh. “This is a big game for us.”
No one is quite sure what kind of reception Michael Vick will get when he returns to the Georgia Dome for the first time since serving 18 months in federal prison for dogfighting. After being out of the league for two seasons, the former Falcons quarterback is now a little-used backup for the Philadelphia Eagles (7-4), who face the Falcons (6-5) Sunday in a crucial matchup of NFC playoff contenders.
Far from the spare part he is now, Vick was one of the league’s most dynamic players during his six years with the Falcons, leading the team to the brink of the Super Bowl after the 2004 season. Some Atlanta fans continue to wear his No. 7 jersey to games, and one group is even planning a welcome home rally for him outside the stadium.
Of course, there will likely be plenty of boos from fans still appalled at the heinous crimes he committed against animals and how much he hurt the franchise that gave him the richest contract in NFL history.
“I don’t really know what’s going to happen,” Vick said Wednesday at the Eagles’ training complex. “I know I still enjoy the city. I’ll never forget the fans. I’ll always be true to them. Who knows? I look forward to going back and being in that stadium. That’s going to be like a dream come true, even though I’m on the opposite side.”
Back in 2007, on the very day Vick was sentenced to prison, the Falcons played a Monday night game against the New Orleans Saints. White paid tribute to his disgraced friend by wearing a “Free Mike Vick” T-shirt under his jersey, which he pulled up after scoring a touchdown so a national television audience could see the handwritten message—a stunt that drew a $10,000 fine from the NFL.
White has no such plans for Sunday, and there’s been so much turnover on the Falcons’ roster that only a handful of players who took the field during Vick’s tenure are still around. Among the 22 starters, a mere seven are holdovers from No. 7’s era.
“I haven’t been thinking about it. It doesn’t matter to me,” said tight end Tony Gonzalez(notes), who’s in his first season with the team. “I know he’s coming back. I’m sure there are some people who are going to welcome him and some people that are not. That’s not my deal. I’m out there to play football.”
But Vick still has friends on the team, including White and another receiver, Brian Finneran(notes). Both have stayed in contact with the ex-Atlanta quarterback.
“We’re always texting back and forth,” White said. “It’s more about life, what’s going on, things like that. It’s nothing football related.”
Have they exchange messages this week? Sure.
“I texted him and said, ‘I look forward to seeing you on Sunday,”’ White said. “He told me, ‘Good luck, get out there and do your thing.’ I think I’m going to text him today and ask for the game plan.”
The receiver was only kidding, of course, but his feelings for Vick are genuine. He’s not defending what his former teammate did away from the field, only remembering the good times they had together.
“He welcomed me here, took me under his wing, got me the ball. How could I be mad at the guy?” White asked. “We’re cool, man. Right before he had to go off and do his thing (prison sentence), we used to hang out. We developed a great relationship. We’re still going to be friends, regardless of football.”
Vick also speaks from time to time with Falcons owner Arthur Blank, who supported his former star’s re-entry into the league and has continually said he would do anything to make sure he keeps his life on the right track, though he ruled out any chance of Vick ever returning to the Falcons.
“I’ll probably give him a call before I get down to Atlanta,” Vick said. “We still have that relationship. I always enjoy speaking with Mr. Blank. He’s a great guy. He’s awesome. He’s done a lot of great things for me, things I’ll never forget. He’s a special person, a person who holds a special place in my heart.”
Atlanta broke all ties with its former franchise player by drafting Matt Ryan(notes) with the No. 3 overall pick in 2008. The rookie won the starting job right away and led the Falcons too a surprising playoff berth.
In an interesting twist, Ryan won’t be playing Sunday because of a toe injury and Vick figures to get only a few plays for the Eagles, if his role up to now is any indication. The three-time Pro Bowler has 15 carries for 65 yards and is 3 of 9 passing for 6 yards. He has yet to score his first post-prison touchdown though he came close in last weekend’s win over the Redskins, breaking off a 4-yard run to the 1.
Vick would love a chance to make up for his last game at the Georgia Dome, which was Christmas Eve 2006. He had one of the worst games of his Falcons career, completing 9 of 20 passes for 109 yards with two interceptions and running four times for 32 yards in a 10-3 loss to Carolina.
But Vick knows he’s not likely to get on the field for more than a few snaps — quite a letdown for a guy who once dominated in the dome.
“This week is going to be a little tougher than average because I played in that stadium,” Vick said. “That’s where I started my career, and I have so many great memories.”
He no longer has the ritzy house in a gated suburban community; that was put on the auction block after he went to prison. But Vick still has plenty of ties to Atlanta.
“The majority of my friends are still there in the city, and who knows if I get a chance to visit with a couple of them? My time is going to be very limited, so who knows?” Vick said.
“The primary focus is on the football game.”
AP Sports Writer Rob Maaddi in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

PHILADELPHIA (AP)—Brian Westbrook(notes) remains sidelined with a concussion and DeSean Jackson’s(notes) status for Philadelphia’s game at Atlanta is uncertain after he sustained a head injury.
Westbrook will miss his third straight game after sustaining his second concussion in a three-week span on Nov. 15. The former All-Pro running back saw concussion specialists this week in Pittsburgh and will be re-examined in a week or two. Westbrook is expected to increase his exercise regimen. He experienced a headache working out last Friday.
Jackson, the Eagles’ big-play wide receiver, was injured in a win over Washington last Sunday. Coach Andy Reid says Jackson is “making progress” recovering from his concussion and wouldn’t rule him out for Sunday’s game against the Falcons.

GENEVA – The world’s largest atom smasher broke the world record for proton acceleration Monday, firing particle beams with 20 percent more power than the American lab that previously held the record.
The power of the Large Hadron Collider’s proton beams is essential to the project’s ultimate goal: smashing particles into each other with enough force to shatter them into the smallest building blocks of matter.
The early-morning test continues a recent sequence of successes that have elated scientists who were disappointed by the $10 billion machine’s collapse last year during its opening in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) tunnel under the Swiss-French border. The breakdown required extensive repairs and improvements.
The collider fired two particle beams at 1.18 trillion electron volts early Monday, surpassing the previous high of 0.98 1 TeV held by the Chicago-area Fermilab since 2001, according to the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
Physicists measure the energy of the hair’s-width beams, not their speed, because the protons are already traveling close to the speed of light and cannot go much faster.
One proton at 1 TeV is about the energy of the motion of a flying mosquito. When a beam is fully packed with 300,000 billion protons with 7 TeV energy — the goal of the LHC — it is like an aircraft carrier traveling at 20 knots. That is why the scientists are carefully learning how to run it and make sure all protection systems are working, said James Gillies, spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
The power level reached Monday isn’t significantly higher than Fermilab’s. More significant advances are expected during the first half of next year when the LHC plans to raise each beam to 3.5 TeV in preparation for experiments create conditions like those 1 trillionth to 2 trillionths of a second after the Big Bang.
Physicists hope that will help them understand suspected phenomena such as dark matter, antimatter and supersymmetry and, ultimately, the creation of the universe billions of years ago.
CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer said the early advances have been “fantastic.”
“However, we are continuing to take it step by step, and there is still a lot to do before we start physics in 2010,” he said. “I’m keeping my champagne on ice until then.”
It may take several years before the LHC will in theory be able to detect the elusive Higgs boson, the particle or field believed to give mass to other particles. The discovery would rank among the greatest in physics.
Physicists have used smaller, room-temperature colliders for decades to study the atom. They once thought protons and neutrons were the smallest components of the atom’s nucleus, but the colliders showed that they are made of quarks and gluons and that there are other forces and particles.
The LHC operates at nearly absolute zero temperature, colder than outer space, which allows some 2,000 superconducting magnets to guide the protons most efficiently.
More than 8,000 physicists from labs around the world also have work planned for the Large Hadron Collider. The organization is run by its 20 European member nations, with support from other countries, including observers from Japan, India, Russia and the United States, which have made big contributions.

PHILADELPHIA (AP)—Allen Iverson(notes) and the Philadelphia 76ers have met to discuss a possible return to the team.
Team president Ed Stefanski said in a statement that both parties remain noncommittal about a final decision after a nearly two-hour meeting Monday in Dallas. The 76ers are in town to play the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night.
Iverson, his agent and business manager met with Stefanski, coach Eddie Jordan and two other members of the organization during the first formal meeting between the Sixers and their former MVP.
Stefanski said the Sixers “will continue to discuss internally whether or not to pursue this course.”
The 10-time All-Star, who retired last week, is among the free-agent candidates the Sixers are considering to replace injured point guard Lou Williams, who’s expected to miss eight weeks after jaw surgery.
Iverson announced his intention to retire last week after no other team expressed an interest is signing the four-time scoring champion. The 6-foot Iverson played three games this season with Memphis before taking a leave of absence to attend to personal matters. He was waived after the two sides agreed to part ways.
The New York Knicks considered signing Iverson after he cleared waivers, before deciding he would take too much playing time from younger players they are trying to develop.
Iverson, the No. 1 overall pick in the 1996 draft, played 10-plus seasons with the 76ers. He was traded to Denver in December 2006, and was then dealt to Detroit early last season.
The 34-year-old Iverson, who has never won an NBA championship, wouldn’t be returning to a winner in Philadelphia. The Sixers have lost six straight games and are 13th in the Eastern Conference under first-year coach Eddie Jordan.
Williams’ injury has paved the way for rookie Jrue Holiday(notes), the 17th pick in the draft, to start.
Iverson had a bitter parting with the Sixers in 2006, making this a truly surprising reconciliation. But both parties are in various states of desperation. The Sixers need a guard on the roster and an electrifying personality such as Iverson to jolt sagging ticket sales. Iverson wants to prove he’s not finished yet and can still play at his All-Star level.
Ed Snider, chairman of Comcast-Spectacor, which owns the 76ers and Flyers, is leaving the decision up to Stefanski.
“While nothing has been decided … I support him and his basketball decisions,” he said Monday.
Snider declared “we’re going to trade him” 11 days before the Sixers sent him to Denver in 2006. His approval was considered necessary for Iverson and the Sixers to reunite. But it appears he’ll let Stefanski make the final call.
Iverson was joined by longtime business manager Gary Moore and agent Leon Rose in the meeting. Rose did not immediately return a call for comment.
Sixers assistant general manager Tony DiLeo and assistant coach Aaron McKie(notes), a former Iverson teammate, also attended the meeting.
Iverson led the Sixers to the NBA finals in 2001. The Sixers have not won a playoff series since 2003.