Association between ADH1C and alcohol phenotypes has been robust in East Asian populations (Thomasson et al., 1991; Luo et al., 2006; Li et al., 2012), inconsistent in European populations (Zintzaras et al., 2006; Tolstrup et al., 2008; Toth et al., 2011), and null in Jewish populations (Neumark et al., 1998; Neumark et al., 2004). Results presented here provide support for the association between ADH1C-rs698 and AUDs. However, we found no evidence of significant association between ADH1C-rs698 and measures of consumption within this sample. These results agree with both the Neumark et al. (Neumark et al., 1998; Neumark et al., 2004) studies showing no association with phenotypes related to alcohol consumption, and with the studies that found association with AUDs (Zintzaras et al., 2006; Tolstrup et al., 2008), in that ADH1C-rs698 is associated with problematic AUDs, but not with measures of more normative heavy alcohol consumption or rates of elimination. As with ADH1B, we have extended these previous studies by examining multiple phenotypes involving consumption and AUDs, within a large population based sample of Israeli Jews.
