The Aldehyde Dehydrogenase ALDH2*2 Allele, Associated with Alcohol Drinking Behavior, Dates Back to Prehistoric Times

Human alcohol-consumption behavior is partly genetically encoded. The alcohol consumption of 987 residents in Keelung, Taiwan, was evaluated by using the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT). We assessed ~750,000 genomic variants of 71 residents who drank hazardously (AUDIT score ≥ 8) and 126 residents who did not drink in their daily lives (AUDIT score = 0), using high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays. The rs671 G...