Some earlier studies have used microarrays to look at genome-wide differences in gene expression in the hippocampus of alcohol naïve P and NP rats [26]. A systems genetic analysis combining data from five strains of high and low alcohol consuming mice together with data from rats and humans identified the GABAergic transmission pathway as critical in the expression of the quantitative phenotype of alcohol consumption. The list of candidate genes included ABAT, GAD1 and GABRB2 [57], [58]. It is noteworthy that in our study ABAT and GAD1 also differed in expression between P and NP rats.
