Although the link between ALDH2 and flushing response is well established (Li et al. 2012b), this is the first GWAS of a quantitative alcohol-related trait in a Chinese sample, and the associations at rs671 and surrounding SNPs in ALDH2 are extraordinarily strong for both flushing (p = 4.75×10-26) and maximum drinks (p = 1.5×10-16). In our sample, the association is so strong and the region of LD surrounding the gene sufficiently broad that this SNP explains the associations we observed with two of the three SNPs previously reported in case-control GWAS in Japanese and Chinese populations.
