We evaluated possible association of genes identified as associated in previous investigations of alcohol consumption phenotypes: GCKR, CADM2, FAM69C, KLB, and CDH13. No GWS results were observed, but suggestive results were observed in EUR at two of these loci, GCKR (min p=5.78×10−6) and KLB (min p=5.54×10−6), and nominally significant signals were observed in the remaining genomic regions (Regional Manhattan Plots for all five of these are in Supplementary Figure 7). This could be attributable to the polygenic architecture of complex traits, where loci have very small effect sizes, and a much larger sample size will be needed to replicate these loci at a genome-wide significance level; or to the difference between MaxAlc and AD, which has a high correlation with PGC AD (see above) and the consumption phenotypes wherein these other markers were identified.
