Through meta-analysis we have identified 162 SNPs associated with MaxDrinks with p < 10−4, of which 81 SNPs are located in known genes (supplementary Table S1). In Table 2, we listed the top 25 findings ranked by their p-values. We focused on the regions around the first 6 SNPs with p < 10−6. Two SNPs reached conservative per-test significance level (p < 5×10−7) (26): The strongest associated marker was rs11128951 (p = 4.27×10−8, 2.19×10−3, 7.47×10−7, for meta-analysis, SAGE and COGA samples, respectively) located at 3p24.3 near SGOL1 gene while the second best novel hit was rs17144687 (p = 9.27×10−8, 1.06×10−6, 2.51×10−2, for meta-analysis, SAGE and COGA samples, respectively) at 5q23.1 near DTWD2 gene. Furthermore, the third and fourth significant associations were observed with rs12108602 near NDST4, and rs2128158 in KCNB2 (p< 5×10−7). In addition, significant results of our top findings were consistent for COGA and SAGE sample separately (p-sa < 0.05 and p-co < 0.05). Applying a permutation procedure for multiple test correction also yielded significant p-values (corrected empirical p-values). 19 of the top 25 SNPs for the SAGE sample
