Genetic variation and linkage disequilibrium in alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) genes

The nature of genetic variations in human ADH genes has been studied in >= 38 populations, which is undertaken to determine the implications of the population genetics of the ADH genes in studies of human evolution.; We studied seven SNPs across 23 kb of ADH7 in 38 world population samples. The overall linkage disequilibrium is moderate to strong across this region even though considerable 7-SNP haplotype diversity is observed. This uncommonly high haplotype diversity is explained by high LD within each "half," the three upstream SNPs and the four downstream SNPs. The low linkage disequilibrium between these two "halves" suggests multiple recombination(s) have occurred in this region, specifically, within intron 7. The absence of strong LD between the functional variation in ADH1B that is strongly associated with alcoholism and any of the variation in ADH7 supports the genetic independence of ADH7 in association studies. Thus, the previously observed epistatic effect of ADH7 cannot be explained by its linkage disequilibrium with a causative factor in ADH1B.; We studied 56 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and one Short Tandem Repeat Polymorphism (STRP) across the ADH clusters in a global sampling of 42 populations. Both the Fst statistic and the long-range haplotype (LRH) test provided positive evidence of selection in several East Asian populations. The ADH1B Arg47His functional polymorphism has the highest Fst of the 56 SNPs in the ADH cluster. The LRH test that uses cores including that site and extending on both sides also gives significant evidence of positive selection in some East Asian populations for a specific haplotype carrying the ADH1B*47His allele. Interestingly, this haplotype is present at a high frequency in only some East Asian populations, whereas the specific allele also exists in other East Asian populations and in the Near East and Europe but does not show evidence of selection with use of the LRH test. Although the ADH1B *47His allele conveys a well-confirmed protection against alcoholism, that modern phenotypic manifestation does not easily translate into a positive selective force, and the nature of that selective force, in the past and/or currently, remains speculative.