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Genetic evidence for assortative mating on alcohol consumption in the UK Biobank

Author

Listed:
  • Laurence J. Howe

    (University of Bristol
    University College London)

  • Daniel J. Lawson

    (University of Bristol)

  • Neil M. Davies

    (University of Bristol)

  • Beate St. Pourcain

    (University of Bristol
    Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
    Radboud University)

  • Sarah J. Lewis

    (University of Bristol)

  • George Davey Smith

    (University of Bristol)

  • Gibran Hemani

    (University of Bristol)

Abstract

Alcohol use is correlated within spouse-pairs, but it is difficult to disentangle effects of alcohol consumption on mate-selection from social factors or the shared spousal environment. We hypothesised that genetic variants related to alcohol consumption may, via their effect on alcohol behaviour, influence mate selection. Here, we find strong evidence that an individual’s self-reported alcohol consumption and their genotype at rs1229984, a missense variant in ADH1B, are associated with their partner’s self-reported alcohol use. Applying Mendelian randomization, we estimate that a unit increase in an individual’s weekly alcohol consumption increases partner’s alcohol consumption by 0.26 units (95% C.I. 0.15, 0.38; P = 8.20 × 10−6). Furthermore, we find evidence of spousal genotypic concordance for rs1229984, suggesting that spousal concordance for alcohol consumption existed prior to cohabitation. Although the SNP is strongly associated with ancestry, our results suggest some concordance independent of population stratification. Our findings suggest that alcohol behaviour directly influences mate selection.

Suggested Citation

  • Laurence J. Howe & Daniel J. Lawson & Neil M. Davies & Beate St. Pourcain & Sarah J. Lewis & George Davey Smith & Gibran Hemani, 2019. "Genetic evidence for assortative mating on alcohol consumption in the UK Biobank," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-12424-x
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12424-x
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    Cited by:

    1. Kenichi Yamamoto & Kyuto Sonehara & Shinichi Namba & Takahiro Konuma & Hironori Masuko & Satoru Miyawaki & Yoichiro Kamatani & Nobuyuki Hizawa & Keiichi Ozono & Loic Yengo & Yukinori Okada, 2023. "Genetic footprints of assortative mating in the Japanese population," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 65-73, January.
    2. Abdel Abdellaoui & Oana Borcan & Pierre Chiappori & David Hugh-Jones, 2022. "Trading Social Status for Genetics in Marriage Markets: Evidence from UK Biobank," University of East Anglia School of Economics Working Paper Series 2022-04, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    3. Liza Darrous & Gibran Hemani & George Davey Smith & Zoltán Kutalik, 2024. "PheWAS-based clustering of Mendelian Randomisation instruments reveals distinct mechanism-specific causal effects between obesity and educational attainment," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    4. Jennifer Sjaarda & Zoltán Kutalik, 2023. "Partner choice, confounding and trait convergence all contribute to phenotypic partner similarity," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(5), pages 776-789, May.
    5. Stephanie von Hinke & Nicolai Vitt, 2024. "An analysis of the accuracy of retrospective birth location recall using sibling data," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.

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