'Hangover' Gene Holds Clues to Alcoholism

[NNadir]

Recently, being a fat guy who occassionally drinks wine or beer, I've been reflecting on alcohol metabolism, the accumulation of FADH2 and NADH in liver tissue owing to the oxidation of alcohol to acetate, and its effect on fat metabolism through allosteric interactions.

These reflections allowed the following interesting tidbit on alcohol metabolism and genetics to catch my eye:

"WEDNESDAY, Aug. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Hard-drinking fruit flies have helped U.S. and German scientists uncover a gene that may shed light on humans' tolerance to alcohol.

The gene -- named hangover by its discoverers -- is part of a genetic pathway that enables the flies to deal with increasing amounts of alcohol, according to researchers.


They also believe this mechanism can lead to alcohol dependence and addiction.


The finding may be important because "identifying the genes you inherit that relate to your tolerance to alcohol helps us understand how genes set you up for a vulnerability to alcoholism," said Dr. James Garbutt, a professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina...

...People's alcohol tolerance is most likely genetically controlled, Garbutt said. "There is good evidence that alcoholism has a strong genetic component," he added. "One of the risk factors in human alcoholism is the ability to tolerate alcohol when you first start drinking. There are some clues about genes associated with that.""

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20050810/hl_hsn/hangovergeneholdscluestoalcoholism

[El Supremo]

1. Those weren't fruit flies....

They're Bar Flies.

:beer:

[Nihil]

2. Fermented-fruit flies

(Love the animation!)