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Further evidence for a modulation of Novelty Seeking by DRD4 exon III, 5-HTTLPR, and COMT val/met variants

Molecular Psychiatry volume 8, pages 371–372 (2003)Cite this article

Sir – The initial findings of an association between the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene exon III polymorphism and the personality trait Novelty Seeking1,2 prompted a large number of follow-up studies.3 Nevertheless, there is still conflicting evidence whether the presence of the DRD4 exon III 7-repeat allele is associated with higher scores in Novelty Seeking. For example, our group confirmed this association in an earlier work,4 but we did not observe an association between DRD4 exon III and Novelty Seeking in a recent study,5 although both samples were drawn from the same population.

Since the expression of a behavioral phenotype is influenced by the developmental and physiologic effect of multiple gene variants, Benjamin et al6 suggested ‘that failure to replicate associations between personality factors and some genes may be partially due to the presence of additional modifying common polymorphisms’ (Benjamin et al,6 p 98). This view is based on their finding that in the absence of the short (s) allele of the serotonin transporter gene promoter-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR)7 and in the presence of the val/val genotype of the catechol O-methyltransferase gene (COMT) val/met polymorphism,8 Novelty Seeking scores are higher in the presence of the DRD4 exon III 7-repeat allele.6

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References

  1. Ebstein RP et al. Nat Genet 1996; 12: 78–80.

  2. Benjamin J et al. Nat Genet 1996; 12: 81–84.

  3. Paterson AD et al. Neuropsychopharmacology 1999; 21: 3–16.

  4. Strobel A et al. Mol Psychiatry 1999; 4: 378–384.

  5. Strobel A et al. Mol Psychiatry 2002; 7: 537–538.

  6. Benjamin J et al. Mol Psychiatry 2000; 5: 96–100.

  7. Lesch KP et al. Science 1996; 274: 1527–1531.

  8. Eisenberg J et al. Am J Med Genet (Neuropsychiatr Genet) 1999; 88: 497–502.

  9. Weyers P et al. Pers Ind Diff 1995; 19: 853–861.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychology II, Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany

    A Strobel, F Paetzold & B Brocke

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    K P Lesch & S Jatzke

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  1. A Strobel
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  2. K P Lesch
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  3. S Jatzke
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  4. F Paetzold
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  5. B Brocke
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Correspondence to A Strobel.

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Strobel, A., Lesch, K., Jatzke, S. et al. Further evidence for a modulation of Novelty Seeking by DRD4 exon III, 5-HTTLPR, and COMT val/met variants. Mol Psychiatry 8, 371–372 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001253

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