We observed that the ELOVL7 exon skipping event exhibits greater significance for the association with the problematic alcohol use traits of alcohol dependence, AUD, and AUDIT-P (Fig. 3G–I), compared to the alcohol consumption trait of drinks per week (DrnkWk, Fig. 3J). A potential explanation for this finding is provided by a previous GWAS meta-analysis demonstrated that drinks per week differs from the other three AUD traits, having only a mild or moderate genetic correlation with them [11]. Together, these results provide high confidence for the role of ELOVL7 in risk of AUD.
