One particular allele of this polymorphism was being transmitted to alcoholics in these families.

Most people have a receptor that's very sensitive to the bitter-tasting compound, but in people that have this variant form, they can tolerate higher concentrations of this bitter compound without it tasting nasty to them.

We looked in a region of chromosome 7, where there are hundreds of genes, and we noticed that there was a cluster of taste receptor genes in this region.

When we understand more about the genes and the environmental factors that influence someone's risk, I think you will be better able to predict who is at highest risk and then target your prevention strategies at those high-risk individuals.

The region of DNA identified in our study showed evidence of replication in four independent series of experiments. I haven't seen a putative risk factor show such consistent results since the e4 variant of the APOE gene was identified as a risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease more than 10 years ago.

There are a few genes that have been implicated in the development of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, but other than APOE, no genes have been found that increase risk for the more common, late-onset form of the disease.