Defining complex endophenotypes such as acute ethanol sensitivity in terms of gene networks, rather than the genetic variants that influence them, has the potential to yield information about complex diseases that is more generalizable to humans. Network function, rather than individual gene influences, is likely more conserved evolutionarily. The ethanol-responsive gene-enriched networks defined here could assist human GWA studies by providing a novel source of functionally related candidate genes. As mentioned above, the fact that several of the major ErGeN hub genes have been recently implicated in GWA studies suggests this approach is highly promising.
