Functional variation in promoter region of monoamine oxidase A and subtypes of alcoholism: haplotype analysis.

Monoamine oxidase (MAO) is a mitochondrial enzyme involved in the degradation of certain neurotransmitter amines. MAO-A, due to its function in central nervous system, has been one of the important candidate genes involved in the development of neuropsychiatric disorders. A functional polymorphism in the promoter region of the MAO-A gene has been identified. This variation affects the transcriptional efficiency of the gene. To determine the role of this MAO-A functional polymorphism in the development of subtypes of alcoholism, a sample of alcoholics and normal controls were screened with this marker. The allele frequency differences between total alcoholics, Types I and II alcoholics, and normal controls was not significant. Comparison of male alcoholics to male normal controls for the frequencies of two-loci and three-loci haplotypes was statistically significant. After Bonferroni's correction for multiple tests none of the results remained significant at P < 0.05. Our results indicate that MAO-A may play a role in the development of alcoholism but the gene effect is very small. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.