A genome-wide linkage and association study using COGA data.
BACKGROUND
Genome-wide association will soon be available to use as an adjunct to traditional linkage analysis. We studied alcoholism in 119 families collected by the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism and made available in Genetic Analysis Workshop 14, using genome-wide linkage and association analyses.


METHODS
Genome-wide linkage analysis was first performed using microsatellite markers and a region with the strongest linkage evidence was further analyzed using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Family based genome-wide association test was also conducted using the SNPs.


RESULTS
Nonparametric linkage analysis revealed weak linkage evidence on chromosome 7, and association analysis identified SNP tsc0515272 on chromosome 3 as significantly associated with alcoholism.


CONCLUSIONS
Linkage analysis may require large sample sizes and high quality genotyping and marker maps to adequately improve power, while association analysis could hold more promise in efforts to identify variants responsible for complex traits.
Zhu
Xiaofeng
X
Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL 60153, USA. xzhu1@lumc.edu
Cooper
Richard
R
Kan
Donghui
D
Cao
Guichan
G
Wu
Xiaodong
X
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D005190:Family; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D008126:Lod Score; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric