Most smoking behavior genetic studies limit their sample populations to European ancestry, but association studies in diverse populations with different linkage disequilibrium patterns and alternate phenotypes may enhance the search for variants relevant to smoking behavior. Li and colleagues reported data from the first study of the association of SNPs in the CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4 gene cluster with smoking behavior in a large Korean sample (Li et al. 2010). Smoking cessation, defined based on smoking status as former versus current smoker, was associated with the CHRNB4 SNP rs11072768 as well as with haplotypes in this gene cluster (Li et al. 2010). Hamidovic et al. (2011) conducted a study in 1,710 African-American current or former smokers. They evaluated smoking persistence, which accounts for periods of smoking cessation during a larger smoking timeframe. CHRNA5 SNP rs12915366 and CHRNA3 SNP rs12914385 were found to be associated with smoking persistence (Hamidovic et al. 2011). Both SNPs are located in regions that have been associated with smoking and nicotine dependence in European Americans (Liu et al. 2010; Saccone et al. 2009; TAG 2010), suggesting that there may
