large contingent of our prior 2-group microarray study of brain ethanol-responsive genes [21]. Strikingly, nearly a quarter of the ethanol-responsive genes defined here were previously identified as having basal expression differences in a meta-analysis by Mulligan et al. [71] of microarray data from whole brain RNA of a number of inbred lines selected for divergent ethanol preferences (Figure S7). It's likely the extent of this overlap would have been greater if that meta-analysis had been conducted across targeted brain regions, rather than whole brain. Regardless, many of the genes whose basal expression levels segregate with alleles driving divergent preferences for ethanol were also regulated upon exposure to acute ethanol in our study. This finding both adds validation to both studies and further emphasizes the relevance of studying acute molecular or behavioral responses to ethanol in terms of their implications for molecular events underlying chronic ethanol behaviors.
