Variants of Different Class 1 alchohol dehydrogenase (ADH) genes have been shown to be associatedwith an effect that is protective against alchoholism. Previous work from our laboratory has shown that the two sites showing the association are in linkage disequilibrium and has identified the ADH1b Arg47His site as causative, with the ADHIC I1e349Val site showing association only because of the disequilibrium. Here, we describe an initial studyof the nature linkge disequilibrium and genetic variation, in population samples from different regions of the world, in a larger segment of the ADH cluster (including the three class 1 ADH genes and ADH7).

A Global Perspective on Genetic Variation at the ADH Genes Reveals Unusual Patterns of Linkage Disequilibrium and Diversity