Tridimensional personality questionnaire trait of harm avoidance (anxiety proneness) is linked to a locus on chromosome 8p21

Human personality traits are moderately heritable but only recently have specific polymorphisms been associated with particular personality dimensions especially anxiety-related and novelty-seeking traits. The first genome-wide scan for personality traits was recently carried out by Cloninger et al. [1998: Am J Med Genet 81:313-317] and his colleagues and they reported that a region on 8p21 showed linkage to TPQ Harm Avoidance, an anxiety-related personality trait. Towards replicating and extending these results, we examined both 8p21 and two additional chromosomal regions (1q21-24 and 22q12-13) for linkage to TPQ personality traits by genotyping at least three microsatellite markers in each region in a group of 384 sibling pairs. We found evidence for linkage to TPQ HA at 8p21-23 (Lod score = 2.907) confirming in an independent sample the initial findings by Cloninger and his colleagues.