WASHINGTON, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Scientists have identified a gene that appears to play a role in regulating how much alcohol people drink, in a study of over 47,000 people published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers say that finding a common genetic variation influencing levels of alcohol consumption may lead to a better understanding of mechanisms underlying alcohol drinking behavior in the general population.
The gene, called autism susceptibility candidate 2, or AUTS2, has previously been linked to autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but its function is not known.
The new study, by an international consortium led by scientists at Imperial College London and King's College London, found that there are two versions of the AUTS2 gene, one three times more common than the other. People with the less common version drink on average five percent less alcohol than people with the more common version.
The gene is most active in parts of the brain associated with neuropsychological reward mechanisms, suggesting that it might play a part in regulating the positive reinforcement that people feel when they drink alcohol.
Alcohol consumption is known to be partly determined by genes but until now the only gene known to make a notable contribution was the gene encoding alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme that breaks down alcohol in the liver.
Professor Paul Elliott, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, said: Of course there are a lot of factors that affect how much alcohol a person drinks, but we know from twin studies that genes play an important role. The difference that this particular gene makes is only small, but by finding it we've opened up a new area of research into the biological mechanisms that control drinking.