1 was completely sequenced for the B6 and DBA/2J (D2) strains commonly used to study alcohol related phenotypes (Walter et al., 2009). In a 3 megabase (Mb) region surveyed, 11,824 SNPs were identified between just these two strains. Additionally, mice can be genetically manipulated by knockout, knockin, RNAi, transgenic, and mutagenic technologies more easily than other mammalian species (see Bennett et al., 2006). Disadvantages of the use of mice, and other rodents, are that they cannot model the entire psychobiological diagnostic construct of alcoholism seen in humans (Lovinger and Crabbe, 2005). However, what has been developed are genetic models that robustly interrogate key features of alcoholism including preferential drinking of alcohol vs. water, conditioned preference for (or avoidance of) locations or flavors conditioned by ethanol, sensitivity and neuroadaption (sensitization and tolerance) to ethanol's stimulating and depressant effects, and the severity of alcohol physiological dependence and associated withdrawal following acute or chronic alcohol exposure (Crabbe, 2008).
