The Gene Ontology (GO) analysis indicated several significant biological processes categories. The categories of ‘anti-apoptosis’ and ‘negative regulation of programmed cell death’ suggest that cellular changes may have occurred to counter any neurotoxic effects of chronic ethanol exposure. A number of the genes identified in the CA group of the present study as having significantly changed expression levels (Table 1) and were members of over-represented GO categories (Table 2) have also been reported in the literature as genes altered by or associated with high ethanol-consumption. For example, (a) Btg2 gene expression, elevated in the CA group, is greater in inbred P versus inbred NP rats as well (Edenberg et al., 2005); (b) Scg2 gene expression, elevated in the CA group, is also increased in the frontal cortex, but decreased in the motor cortex of alcoholics (Mayfield et al., 2002); (c) Tgfa, with gene expression increased in the CA group, over-expressing mice display greater ethanol preference than their wild-type counterparts (Hilakivi-Clarke and Goldberg, 1995); and (d) a gene moderately similar to Zfp91 is altered in the prefrontal cortex of alcoholics (Flatscher-Bader
