PEMT: do you need more choline than most?
Your body makes some of its own choline. This gene sets how much, and whether your plate has to make up the difference.
Choline keeps your liver, brain, and methylation running. You can't skip it. Most of it comes from food, but you also make a little yourself through an enzyme called PEMT. A common variant in that gene, rs7946, dials down how much you produce, so you have to eat more to land in the same place. And in people who carry it, how much choline they get tracks closely with liver-fat risk.
What PEMT does
When you make less of your own choline, the rest has to come from food. Eggs and liver are far and away the richest sources. A supplement like CDP-choline or alpha-GPC fills whatever gap is left.
This is genetics changing what your body actually needs, not just nudging a risk number. So it's one of the cleaner cases where your genotype changes what goes on your plate.
Your variants, decoded
The T allele means you build less phosphatidylcholine on your own, so more of your choline has to come from the plate.
| CC | Normal choline production. |
| CT | Lower production, so you need more choline from food. |
| TT | The lowest production, and where the choline argument is strongest. |
We show genotypes on the forward strand and ignore letter order. Your own export may print the complementary letters. Same result either way.
What the research suggests
Your PEMT rs7946 (V175M) variant means your body builds less phosphatidylcholine on its own, so you need more choline from your diet to keep up. In this genotype, how much choline you get tracks closely with liver-fat risk. A choline supplement, or choline-rich foods like eggs and liver, covers the shortfall.
PubMed 37513629 · PEMT rs7946 modifies choline's effect on hepatic steatosis
Educational only, not medical advice. “General evidence” means the finding is real, but the benefit isn’t specific to your genotype.
See this matched to your own DNA, free.
Upload your 23andMe or AncestryDNA file and you'll get your actual PEMT result, plus every other variant worth acting on. Every line cited. Your file is never stored.
Questions
How much choline do I need with a PEMT variant?
More than the standard amount, since you make less of your own. Cover it with choline-rich food, or a supplement if your diet runs short. The exact number is personal, so treat the baseline as a floor, not a target.