We first conducted a GWAS analysis of the two alcohol consumption phenotypes, stratified by race/ethnicity, detecting two loci associated at a genome-wide level of significance (p<5×10−8). The strongest association was observed in East Asians between the well-known ALDH2 locus25 on 12q24 and alcohol drinker status (Figure 1. a). This association was driven by the missense SNP rs671 in ALDH2 (G>A Glu457Lys), with subjects carrying the rs671 A allele considerably less likely to report any alcohol intake (OR=0.40, p=2.28×10−72) (Table 2). Among East Asian subjects who report drinking alcohol, we also observed an association between rs671 and a reduction of 0.76 drinks/week per copy (p=5.42×10−4). rs671 was not polymorphic (MAF<0.5%) in non-Hispanic whites and African Americans, and was observed at a low frequency with poor imputation quality in Hispanic/Latinos, and so was excluded from the analysis in these race/ethnicity groups. The second strongest association was detected in non-Hispanic white subjects for the well-known rs122998425, a missense SNP in ADH1B (C>T Arg48His), which was associated with both alcohol consumption phenotypes. Subjects who carry the rs1229984 T allele were less likely to report
