ANXIETY PRONENESS LINKED TO EPISTATIC LOCI IN GENOME SCAN OF HUMAN PERSONALITY-TRAITS

A genome-wide scan between normal human personality traits and a set o f genetic markers at an average interval of 13 centimorgans was carrie d out in 758 pairs of siblings in 177 nuclear families of alcoholics. Personality traits were measured by the Tridimensional Personality Que stionnaire. We detected significant linkage between the trait Harm Avo idance, a measure of anxiety proneness, and a locus on chromosome 8p21 -23 that explained 38% of the trait variance. There was significant ev idence of epistasis between the locus on 8p and others on chromosomes 18p, 20p, and 21q. These oligogenic interactions explained most of the variance in Harm Avoidance. There was suggestive evidence of epistasi s in other personality traits. These results confirm the important inf luence of epistasis on human personality suggested by twin and adoptio n studies. Am. J. Med. Genet. (Neuropsychiatr. Genet.) 81:313-317, 199 8. (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.