No association of a casein kinase 1ε (CK1ε) gene polymorphism with personality traits in healthy Chinese-Han subjects.

The human casein kinase 1 (CK1) family is comprised of seven monomeric serine/threonine kinases (α, β, γ1-γ3, δ, and ε) encoded by seven highly conserved genes. Casein kinases modulate numerous biological and pathological processes by regulating the phosphorylation of the 32 kDa dopamine- and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein DARPP-32, a major downstream regulator of dopamine signaling. Individual variation in the dopamine signaling system is thought to determine certain dimensions of personality, but there have been no published studies investigating the involvement of CK1 in the biological determination of temperament. We examined the association between the rs135745C/G polymorphism of the CK1ε gene CSNK1E and personality traits as measured by the tridimensional personality questionnaire in healthy Chinese-Han subjects. There were no differences in the total scores for novelty seeking (NS, χ (2) = 4.151, P = 0.125), harm avoidance (χ (2) = 3.299, P = 0.192), or reward dependence (χ (2) = 0.816, P = 0.665) between the rs135745C/G genotypes. In the sub-item analyses, the NS1 scores were significantly different (χ (2) = 7.024, P = 0.030) between rs135745C/G genotypes. However, this difference did not remain statistically significant after Bonferroni correction. Thus, our results did not provide evidence for the association between CK1ε gene and personality traits in healthy Chinese-Han subjects.