Recently, the number of large genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of alcohol-related behaviors has increased, covering a spectrum of phenotypes ranging from alcohol use to AUD diagnoses. It has become increasingly clear that although alcohol consumption and AUD are genetically related, they do not have the same genetic architecture [5,6,7,8]. Importantly, AUD shares genetic liability with other psychiatric comorbidities, whereas alcohol consumption does not [5,6]. Several parallel efforts are underway to identify genes associated with alcohol problems and clinical AUD diagnoses. A GWAS of DSM-IV alcohol dependence (N = 52,848) conducted by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium identified variants in ADH1B [8]. A 2019 meta-analysis of two population-based studies of the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT; N = 141,932 individuals) [5] replicated previously identified signals in the genes ADH1B, ADH1C, KLB, and GCKR and identified novel associations localized to genes, including JCAD and SLC39A13. More recently, 18 genome-wide significant loci were identified in a GWAS of alcohol use disorder from the Million Veteran Program [6]. Forthcoming findings from even larger consortia-based efforts will be highly informative for gene discovery regarding alcohol
