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Respiratory sinus arrhythmia and serotonin transporter promoter gene polymorphisms: Taking a triallelic approach makes a difference
Author(s) -
Vulturar Romana,
Chiş Adina,
Ungureanu Loredana,
Miu Andrei C.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2012.01445.x
Subject(s) - serotonin transporter , allele , genotype , genetics , 5 httlpr , biology , polymorphism (computer science) , single nucleotide polymorphism , gene
It has been recently reported in P sychophysiology that carriers of the short allele of an insertion/deletion (ins/del) functional polymorphism in the promoter region ( 5‐ HTTLPR ) of the serotonin transporter gene may display decreased resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia ( RSA ). However, this region hosts another functionally connected single‐nucleotide polymorphism (rs25531), which should also be genotyped in order to correctly categorize the low‐ and high‐expressing alleles of 5‐ HTTLPR . The present study investigated resting RSA in an ethnically homogenous sample ( N = 143) of participants genotyped for both the ins/del and rs25531 polymorphisms in 5‐ HTTLPR . In contrast with the biallelic genotypes, based only on the ins/del alleles, the triallelic 5‐ HTTLPR genotypes (i.e., including rs25531) showed no association with resting RSA . Taking a triallelic approach to 5‐ HTTLPR is thus necessary in order to avoid false positive results.