Effects ofGABRA2Variation on Physiological, Psychomotor and Subjective Responses in the Alcohol Challenge Twin Study

In: Twin research and human genetics: the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies (ISTS) and the Human Genetics Society of Australasia, Volume 11, Issue 2, p. 174-182

Abstract

AbstractMultiple reports have identified variation in theGABRA2gene as contributing to the genetic susceptibility to alcohol dependence. However, both the mechanism behind this association, and the range of alcohol-related phenotypes affected by variation in this gene, are currently undefined. Other data suggest that the risk of alcohol dependence is increased by relative insensitivity to alcohol's intoxicating effects. We have therefore tested whetherGABRA2variation is associated with variation in the subjective and objective effects of a standard dose of alcohol in humans. Data on responses to alcohol from the Alcohol Challenge Twin Study (Martin et al., 1985) have been tested against allelic and haplotype information obtained by typing 41 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in or close to theGABRA2gene. Nominally significant allelic associations (p< .05, without correction for multiple testing) were found for body sway, motor coordination, pursuit rotor and arithmetical computation tasks, and for the personality dimension of Neuroticism. Because of the large number of phenotypes tested, these possibly significant findings will need to be confirmed in further studies.