Epistatic Quantitative Trait Loci for Alcohol Preference in Mice

Alcohol consumption is a complex trait, responding to the influence of various genes and environmental influences acting in a quantitative fashion. Various studies in alcohol consumption processes have identified quantitative trait locus (QTL) regions across the mouse genome that appear to contribute to this phenotype. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of interactions between alleles at different loci, a phenomenon known as epistasis, on previously identified QTLs for alcohol consumption in mice. A multiple regression model was developed and applied to test for the significance of the interaction between two QTLs and to quantify this interaction. Our results indicate the presence of epistasis between loci on mouse chromosomes 2 and 3 accounting for 7-8% of the variation in alcohol preference, respectively.