Abstract
Alcohol use is correlated within spouse-pairs, but it is difficult to disentangle effects of alcohol consumption on mate-selection from social factors or the shared spousal environment. We hypothesised that genetic variants related to alcohol consumption may, via their effect on alcohol behaviour, influence mate selection. Here, we find strong evidence that an individual’s self-reported alcohol consumption and their genotype at rs1229984, a missense variant in ADH1B, are associated with their partner’s self-reported alcohol use. Applying Mendelian randomization, we estimate that a unit increase in an individual’s weekly alcohol consumption increases partner’s alcohol consumption by 0.26 units (95% C.I. 0.15, 0.38; P = 8.20 × 10−6). Furthermore, we find evidence of spousal genotypic concordance for rs1229984, suggesting that spousal concordance for alcohol consumption existed prior to cohabitation. Although the SNP is strongly associated with ancestry, our results suggest some concordance independent of population stratification. Our findings suggest that alcohol behaviour directly influences mate selection.
Highlights
Alcohol use is correlated within spouse-pairs, but it is difficult to disentangle effects of alcohol consumption on mate-selection from social factors or the shared spousal environment
Alcohol behaviour has been shown to be highly heritable with estimates of 30–50% for alcohol use disorders[19,20] and a common variant heritability of 13% for self-reported alcohol consumption;[21] Genome-wide Association Studies (GWAS) have identified more than 15 loci implicated in either the aetiology of alcohol dependence[22,23,24,25,26] or alcohol consumption volume[21,24,27,28,29]
Genetic variants in the Alcohol Dehydrogenase (ADH) and Aldehyde Dehydrogenase (ALDH) gene families are associated with differences in alcohol consumption[30]
Summary
Alcohol use is correlated within spouse-pairs, but it is difficult to disentangle effects of alcohol consumption on mate-selection from social factors or the shared spousal environment. Genotypes implicated in the aetiology of height, education, blood pressure and several chronic diseases have been shown to be correlated within spouse-pairs[15,16,17,18] It is not known whether genetic variants implicated in alcohol metabolism, via their effect on alcohol behaviour, contribute to mate selection. Alcohol behaviour has been shown to be highly heritable with estimates of 30–50% for alcohol use disorders[19,20] and a common variant heritability of 13% for self-reported alcohol consumption;[21] Genome-wide Association Studies (GWAS) have identified more than 15 loci implicated in either the aetiology of alcohol dependence[22,23,24,25,26] or alcohol consumption volume[21,24,27,28,29]. A genetic variant in ALDH2, rare in non-east Asian populations, is associated with a flush reaction to alcohol[31,32]
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