Until last year, all large-scale gene identification studies on smoking were conducted in populations of European ancestry. Conducting genetic association (and gene–environment interaction) studies in populations of African ancestry is important because of their greater genetic diversity and the evolutionary differences in disease allele frequency and linkage disequilibrium patterns.16 Due to the lack of gene identification studies in populations of diverse ancestry, the genetic architecture of smoking-related traits is not well described in groups that are not of European ancestry. This is an important gap in the literature, as there is evidence that genetic determinants have important implications for multiple addictive behaviors in populations globally.17 The Study of Tobacco in Minority Populations (STOMP) Genetics Consortium, which represents 13 GWAS studies of men and women of African ancestry, was created to search for genetic risk loci for smoking behaviors in this population. Recently, STOMP conducted a meta-analysis of smoking phenotypes (for example, number of cigarettes smoked per day and age of smoking initiation) in 32 389 African Americans (effective sample size ∼15 000).18 This well-powered meta-analysis produced one genetic variant of
