Recently, a human genome-wide association study of AD in an Australian population identified a SNP in the human homolog of ctbp-1, called CTBP2, as the marker with the most significant P value for association with AD [35]. Significantly, the mammalian CTBP2 protein also acts as a transcriptional repressor, and has recently been shown to play a role in regulating genes with roles in lipid metabolism in adipocytes [36]. Variation in the function of this gene may have more general effects on lipid membrane composition and could impact responses to alcohol. We suggest that it may be fruitful to further examine genes involved in cholesterol and lipid biosynthesis in vertebrate models and human genetic association studies of alcohol dependence.
