of different ancestries. This approach is termed “cross-population contrast mapping” based on the hypothesis that important biological mechanisms underlying a disease of interest are shared by various human populations, although differences in allele frequencies at risk loci could result in different prevalences in different populations [53]. Because smoking is a significant risk factor for LC, and the association of CHRNA5/A3/B4 with smoking or LC risk had been reported in many other populations, the present work should contribute to establishing that different polymorphic CHRNA5/A3/B4 patterns associate with the physiology of smoking and LC in ethnically and geographically different populations.
