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Saturday, June 16, 2007

Identification of Candidate Genes for Alcohol Preference by Expression Profiling of Congenic Rat Strains
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 31 (7), 1089–1098.
This study was undertaken to identify genes in the chromosome 4 QTL interval that might contribute to the differences in alcohol consumption between the alcohol-naïve congenic and background strains.
Analyses within individual brain regions that focused on genes within the QTL interval detected differential expression in all 5 brain regions; a total of 35 genes were detected in at least 1 region, ranging from 6 genes in the nucleus accumbens to 22 in the frontal cortex.
Analysis of the whole genome detected very few differentially expressed genes outside the QTL. Combined analysis across brain regions was more powerful.
Analysis focused on the genes within the QTL interval confirmed 19 of the genes detected in individual regions and detected 15 additional genes. Whole genome analysis detected 1 differentially expressed gene outside the interval.

Cis-regulated candidate genes for alcohol consumption were identified using microarray profiling of gene expression differences in congenic animals carrying a QTL for alcohol preference.
Reprint Request E-Mail: lcarr@iupui.edu
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