Anxiety- and novelty seeking-related personality traits and serotonin transporter gene polymorphisms

The affection of human personality by the promoter and the intron 2 polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene (SERT) is inconsistently reported. We aimed to clarify this situation by gender-specific haplotype–phenotype association. 98 women and 97 men completed the personality inventories NEO-PI-R and TPQ. The subjects were genotyped for the two SERT polymorphisms and the haplotypes were calculated. The short (S) and long (L) promoter alleles and the 12 and 10 repeat intron 2 alleles formed the haplotypes S 12, S 10, L 12 and L 10. In men, scores in the anxiety-related dimensions were higher in S 12 than in L 12 carriers. Opposite in direction, scores tended to be lower in S 10 than in L 10 carriers. In the novelty seeking-related dimensions, scores were higher in S 10 than in S 12 carriers. No association was observed in women. In conclusion, anxiety- and novelty seeking-related personality dimensions are differentially associated with different SERT haplotypes; the consistent restriction to men suggests common androgen regulation. Opposite trends with haplotypes including the same promoter alleles suggest contribution of group stratification to earlier inconsistent findings and call to further differentiate the molecular function and clinical implications of the SERT promoter polymorphism.