An association between the DAT1 polymorphism and smoking behavior in young adults from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
Associations between smoking behavior and polymorphisms in the dopaminergic genes (DAT1 and DRD2) were tested by using within- and between-family measures of allelic transmission in 2,448 young adults from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The 9-repeat allele of the dopamine transporter gene polymorphism (DAT1) was inversely associated with smoking in samples that included all subjects and only those who had initiated smoking, accounting for approximately 1% of the variance. Never smokers and current nonsmokers had an excess transmission of the 9-repeat allele compared with regular smokers, suggesting a protective effect of the 9-repeat allele, which is hypothesized to alter synaptic dopamine levels.
Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0447, USA. david.timberlake@colorado.edu
David S
DS
Timberlake
Brett C
BC
Haberstick
Jeffrey M
JM
Lessem
Andrew
A
Smolen
Marissa
M
Ehringer
John K
JK
Hewitt
Christian
C
Hopfer
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002610:Cheek / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D017447:Receptors, Dopamine D1 / Q000235:genetics*; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2 / Q000235:genetics*; D035781:Siblings; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics; D014481:United States
D017447:Receptors, Dopamine D1; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2