One advantage of GSMA is to confirm consistent evidence for linkage across studies. We compared the regions nominated in the current GSMA with regions that were previously identified as consistent across several independent genome scans. Genomic regions on chromosomes 9 (from 91.9 to 136.5 cM based on the Marshfield map), 10 (62–158 cM), 11 (2–76 cM), and 17 (20–82 cM) have been replicated independently more often than other regions (1). However, no strong evidence was achieved for these regions in the current GSMA. GSMA is not used for exclusion mapping and the failure to show strong evidence of linkage for these regions does not necessarily mean that those regions do not harbor risk loci for smoking behavior. The GSMA method is particularly useful to identify regions that show weak but consistent evidence of linkage across multiple studies. It does not take into account directly whether the linkage signals aggregated have reached genomewide, or “suggestive,” evidence for linkage, themselves. Nonetheless, it is notable that some evidence from the current GSMA does support linkage on chromosome 11 and 17. For example, in
