Agouti signaling protein (ASP) is a secreted paracrine protein that has been widely reported to function in melanogenesis and obesity and could potentially be a core protein that regulates the color and fatty phenotype of P. sinensis.
Mahoganoid effects on energy homeostasis are, therefore, most evident in the circumstances of epistasis to hypothalamic overexpression of ASP in A(y) and possible other obesity-causing mutations.
Variation in the human counterparts to these genes (OB, DB, TUB, and ASP, respectively) may contribute to human obesity, which is thought to have a substantial genetic component.