Smoking As A Quantitative Trait Locus 1

Mapping

In a genomewide scan using 385 microsatellite markers in 1,261 individuals representing 402 nuclear families of African American origin, Li et al. (2006) found a region near marker D10S1432 on chromosome 10q22 that showed significant linkage to indexed smoking quantity, with a maximum lod score of 4.17 at 92 cM. They also found evidence of suggestive linkage on chromosomes 9, 11, and 13 for major genetic determinants of nicotine dependence.

In a genomewide scan of 505 individuals consisting mostly of dizygotic twin pairs from 153 Finnish families ascertained for cigarette smoking, Loukola et al. (2008) found linkage to chromosome 10q25 (maximum 2-point nonparametric lod score of 3.35 at D10S597). Suggestive evidence was also observed for binge drinking at chromosome 10q25 (maximum 2-point lod score of 2.49 at D10S141), overlapping the smoking locus. Loukola et al. (2008) suggested that this may represent the shared genetic etiology for these traits.

The Tobacco and Genetics Consortium (2010) reported the findings of genomewide association studies for number of cigarettes smoked per day among about 74,000 European individuals from multiple different cohorts, including those of Thorgeirsson et al. (2010) and Liu et al. (2010). Significant associations were found for 2 SNPs at chromosome 10q25: the G allele of rs1329650 (p = 5.7 x 10(-10)) and the A allele of rs1028936 (p = 1.3 x 10(-9)). The SNPs are located in a noncoding RNA.