Cigarette smoking is associated with considerable morbidity, mortality, and public health costs.
Genetic factors have been conclusively show to influence both smoking initiation and nicotine dependence, but none of the genes involved have yet been conclusively identified. A genome scan was conducted to identify chromosomal regions linked to nicotine dependence in a collection of 130 families containing 308 nicotine dependent individuals from Christchurch, New Zealand. The best evidence for linkage was found with a marker on chromosome two which resulted in a heterogeneity LOD score of 2.63. The sample sizes used here provide only limited power to detect linkage for a genetically complex trait such as nicotine dependence. Therefore, some or all of the most positive results could be due to chance.