Splicing associations with AUD occurred in genes involved with neurotransmission, intracellular signaling, and drug/alcohol metabolism. Most alternative mRNA splicing events were uncharacterized, but a few of the ion channel (CACNA1A, KCNMA1) and glutamate receptor (GRIA2) associations seemed to affect synaptic neurotransmission. For instance, in the BLA, we found that individuals with AUD were more likely to have an exon skipping event of the GRIA2 flip exon (exon 14), which is associated with longer glutamate receptor opening and consistent with the BLA pathology in alcohol use46–48.
