Obesity and diabetes represent a significant healthcare concern. In contrast to genome-wide association studies that, some exceptions notwithstanding, have offered modest clues about pathomechanism, the dissection of rare disorders in which obesity represents a core feature have highlighted key molecules and structures critical to energy regulation. Here we focus on the primary cilium, an organelle whose roles in energy homeostasis have been underscored by the high incidence of obesity and type II diabetes in patients and mouse mutants with compromised ciliary function. We discuss recent evidence linking ciliary dysfunction to metabolic defects and we explore the contribution of neuronal and nonneuronal cilia to these phenotypes.
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