Advances in genetic technology beyond linkage or cytogenetic analysis of affected families with alcoholism or other complex disorders using COGA, SAGE, and other resources have led to genome-wide association studies (GWAS) involving hundreds of affected and control individuals analyzing the distribution and clustering of hundreds and thousands of SNPs to search for candidate genes (Edenberg, 2012; Edenberg and Foroud, 2013; Enoch, 2013; Morozova et al., 2014; Rietschel and Treutlein, 2013; Yan et al., 2014). GWAS studies have identified genetic linkage to primary disease risk, alcoholism-related phenotypes and responsiveness such as consumption, level of response to alcohol’s effects and event-related potential. Examples of candidate genes identified by GWAS studies include functional roles in cell adhesion important for brain development and implicated in Autism Spectrum Disorder (e.g., AUTS2, CDH13, EFNA5), molecular transporters (e.g., SLC1A3, SLC5A11, SLC6A4), and growth factors (e.g., BDNF) (Edenberg, 2012; Edenberg and Foroud, 2006, 2013; Enoch, 2013; Morozova et al., 2014; Rietschel and Treutlein, 2013; Yan et al., 2014).
