Anxiety proneness linked to epistatic loci in genome scan of human personality traits.

A genome-wide scan between normal human personality traits and a set of genetic markers at an average interval of 13 centimorgans was carried out in 758 pairs of siblings in 177 nuclear families of alcoholics. Personality traits were measured by the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire. We detected significant linkage between the trait Harm Avoidance, a measure of anxiety proneness, and a locus on chromosome 8p21-23 that explained 38% of the trait variance. There was significant evidence of epistasis between the locus on 8p and others on chromosomes 18p, 20p, and 21q. These oligogenic interactions explained most of the variance in Harm Avoidance. There was suggestive evidence of epistasis in other personality traits. These results confirm the important influence of epistasis on human personality suggested by twin and adoption studies.

Genome-wide search for genes affecting the risk for alcohol dependence.

Alcohol dependence is a leading cause of morbidity and premature death. Several lines of evidence suggest a substantial genetic component to the risk for alcoholism: sibs of alcoholic probands have a 3-8 fold increased risk of also developing alcoholism, and twin heritability estimates of 50-60% are reported by contemporary studies of twins. We report on the results of a six-center collaborative study to identify susceptibility loci for alcohol dependence. A genome-wide screen examined 291 markers in 987 individuals from 105 families. Two-point and multipoint nonparametric linkage analyses were performed to detect susceptibility loci for alcohol dependence. Multipoint methods provided the strongest suggestions of linkage with susceptibility loci for alcohol dependence on chromosomes 1 and 7, and more modest evidence for a locus on chromosome 2. In addition, there was suggestive evidence for a protective locus on chromosome 4 near the alcohol dehydrogenase genes, for which protective effects have been reported in Asian populations.

Initial genomic scan of the NIMH genetics initiative bipolar pedigrees: chromosomes 3, 5, 15, 16, 17, and 22.

As part of the four-center NIMH Genetics Initiative on Bipolar Disorder we carried out a genomic scan of chromosomes 3, 5, 15, 16,17, and 22. Genotyping was performed on a set of 540 DNAs from 97 families, enriched for affected relative pairs and parents where available. We report here the results of the initial 74 markers that have been typed on this set of DNAs. The average distance between markers (theta) was 12.3 cM. Nonparametric analysis of excess allele sharing among affected sibling pairs used the SIBPAL program of the S.A.G.E. package to test three hierarchical models of affected status. D16S2619 gave some evidence of linkage to bipolar disorder, with P = 0.006 for Model II (in which bipolar 1, bipolar 2 and schizoaffective-bipolar type individuals are considered affected). Nearby markers also showed increased allele sharing. A second interesting region was toward the telomere of chromosome 5q, where D5S1456 and nearby markers showed increased allele sharing; for D5S1456, P = 0.05, 0.015 and 0.008 as the models of affected status become more broad. MOD score analysis also supported the possible presence of a susceptibility locus in this region of chromosome 5. A pair of adjacent markers on chromosome 3, D3S2405 and D3S3038, showed a modest increased allele sharing in the broad model. Several isolated markers had excess allele sharing at the P < 0.05 level under a single model. D15S217 showed a MOD score of 2.37 (P < 0.025). Multipoint analysis flagged the region of chromosome 22 around D22S533 as the most interesting. Thus, several regions showed modest evidence for linkage to bipolar disorder in this initial genomic scan of these chromosomes, including broad regions near previous reports of possible linkage.