Genes that influence alcohol metabolism undoubtedly play some role in contributing to differences in alcohol consumption in this European ancestry sample. It is well known that the ALDH2 locus, which is polymorphic in individuals of Asian ancestry but not those of European ancestry, is associated with differences in both AD and alcohol consumption (42,43). Although analysis of SNPs across the ADH gene have confirmed significant effects of ADH gene variants in non-Jewish individuals of European ancestry, both on metabolism (44) and on multiple indices of heaviness of consumption (45), the variance in consumption level accounted for was small.
