| Chapter 1. Background and Literature Review | 第9-20页 |
| 1.1. Genetic epidemiological of tobacco smoking | 第10页 |
| 1.2. Neurobiology underlying nicotine addiction | 第10-12页 |
| 1.3. Genetic approaches to complex traits | 第12-16页 |
| 1.4. Previous association studies on smoking behavior | 第16-19页 |
| 1.5. Molecular studies on functional SNPs and genes associated with smoking dependence | 第19-20页 |
| Chapter 2. Serotonin Transporter and Receptor Genes Significantly Impact Nicotine Dependencethrough Genetic Interactions in both European American and African American Smokers | 第20-44页 |
| 2.1 Abstract | 第21-22页 |
| 2.2. Introduction | 第22-24页 |
| 2.3 Materials and Methods | 第24-27页 |
| 2.3.1 Subjects and ND Measures | 第24-25页 |
| 2.3.2 DNA Sample Processing, and Selection and Genotyping of Polymorphic Variants | 第25-26页 |
| 2.3.3 Statistical Analysis | 第26-27页 |
| 2.4 Results | 第27-30页 |
| 2.4.1 Quality control and pair-wise LD tests | 第27-28页 |
| 2.4.2 Individual SNP-Based Association Analysis | 第28页 |
| 2.4.3 Haplotype-Based Association Analysis | 第28-29页 |
| 2.4.4 Gene-by-Gene Interaction Analysis of HTR3A, HTR3B, and SLC6A4 | 第29-30页 |
| 2.5 Discussion | 第30-44页 |
| Chapter 3. Allelic Effects of SNP rs 1880676 of Choline Acetyltransferase on GeneExpression in HeLa Cells | 第44-62页 |
| 3.1. Abstract | 第45-46页 |
| 3.2. Introduction | 第46-47页 |
| 3.3. Materials and Methods | 第47-53页 |
| 3.3.1 Plasmid construction and mutagenesis | 第47-50页 |
| 3.3.2 Plasmid amplification | 第50-51页 |
| 3.3.3 Cell culture and transfection | 第51页 |
| 3.3.4 mRNA expression level analysis | 第51-52页 |
| 3.3.5 Western blotting analysis | 第52页 |
| 3.3.6 Enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA) analysis | 第52-53页 |
| 3.3.7 Statistical analysis | 第53页 |
| 3.4. Results | 第53-55页 |
| 3.4.1 Comparison of ChAT mRNA expression of A and G alleles of rs1880676 in HeLa cells | 第53-54页 |
| 3.4.2 Comparison of ChAT level of A and G allele of rs1880676 in HeLa cells | 第54页 |
| 3.4.3 Comparison of ChAT concentrations of A and G allele of rs1880676 in HeLa cells | 第54-55页 |
| 3.5. Discussion | 第55-62页 |
| Chapter 4. Summary of Results and Future Research Directions | 第62-66页 |
| 4.1. Summary of Results | 第63-64页 |
| 4.2. Future research direction | 第64-66页 |
| Chapter 5. List of References | 第66-90页 |
| Chapter 6. Appendixes | 第90-91页 |
| Acknowledgements | 第91页 |
