科学家找到了基因组的一个看上去可以决定饮酒者能在多大程度上感受酒精效应的区域。Raymond White及其同事提出，一个人对酒精摄入的反应程度提供了一种中间的度量，可以用于调查影响酒精滥用的遗传因素。
科学家报告说15号染色体上的一个单核苷酸多态（SNP）与酒精反应的程度有显著的关联。低水平的酒精反应意味着饮酒者可以在感到醉之前忍受许多杯酒。这组科学家对来自圣地亚哥兄弟姐妹项目的313名白人兄弟姐妹进行了基因分型，并分析了两个前哨SNPs与反应水平的三种度量的关联。一个特定的SNP与身体摇晃之间存在明显的强关联。这组作者还调查了其他的SNPs，但是发现没有一个提供了饮酒对一个人的身体影响的更好例子。他们提出，已发现的几个遗传临近的候选基因可能是反应水平不同的原因。尽管其他研究已经把15号染色体和酒精使用障碍联系在了一起，这组作者提出，烟碱受体基因CHRNA5很可能对个体酒精反应的差异负责。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
PNAS December 8, 2008, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0810970105
Chromosome 15q25.1 genetic markers associated with level of response to alcohol in humans
Geoff Joslyna,1, Gerry Brusha,1, Margaret Robertsona, Tom L. Smithb, Jelger Kalmijnb, Marc Schuckitb, and Raymond L. Whitea,2
As with other genetically complex common psychiatric and medical conditions, multiple genetic and environmental components contribute to alcohol use disorders (AUDs), which can confound attempts to identify genetic components. Intermediate phenotypes are often more closely correlated with underlying biology and have often proven invaluable in genetic studies. Level of response (LR) to alcohol is an intermediate phenotype for AUDs, and individuals with a low LR are at increased risk. A high rate of concurrent alcohol and nicotine use and dependence suggests that these conditions may share biochemical and genetic mechanisms. Genetic association studies indicate that a genetic locus, which includes the CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4 gene cluster, plays a role in nicotine consumption and dependence. Genetic association with alcohol dependence was also recently shown. We show here that two of the markers from the nicotine studies also show an association (multiple testing corrected P < 0.025) with several LR phenotypes in a sample of 367 siblings. Additional markers in the region were analyzed and shown to be located in a 250-kb expanse of high linkage disequilibrium containing three additional genes. These findings indicate that LR intermediate phenotypes have utility in genetic approaches to AUDs and will prove valuable in the identification of other genetic loci conferring susceptibility to AUDs.
