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 consuming alcohol (OR=0.79, p=2.47×10−20), and among those who did report consuming alcohol, a reduction of 1.26 drinks per week per copy was reported (p=1.91×10−35). Similarly, we found associations between ADH1B rs1229984 and both alcohol consumption phenotypes in Hispanic/Latinos (OR=0.72, p=4.35×10−7 and β=−0.21, p=2.58×10−6). ADH1B rs1229984 showed a consistent direction of effect in all race/ethnicity groups, however, the effect of this SNP in East Asians was smaller than in the other groups. To determine whether the effect of ADH1B rs1229984 was attenuated by the strong effect of ALDH2 rs671 in East Asians, we performed a sub-group analysis among those not carrying the protective allele at ALDH2 rs671 (GG homozygotes). For drinker/non-drinker status, we found similar results (OR=0.94, p=0.21) than in the non-stratified East Asian sample. However, for the quantitative trait drinks/week, we found a relatively small effect of rs1229984 in this sub-group analysis (β=−0.04, p=0.19), suggesting that the effect of AHD1B rs1229984 on alcohol consumption in East Asians may not be
