The rs1006737 (A/G) single nucleotide polymorphism within the gene encoding the Ca<sub>v</sub>1.2 subunit of the L-type voltage-dependent calcium channel (CACNA1C) has been strongly implicated in psychiatric disorders.
Several genome-wide association studies and case-control studies have associated the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1006737, situated in CACNA1C encoding the alpha 1C subunit of the L-type voltage-gated calcium channel, with bipolar disorder and other psychiatric disorders.
Our study is the first to provide evidence for an impairing behavioral effect of the CACNA1C risk variant rs1006737 on facial emotion recognition in healthy individuals and adds to the growing number of studies pointing towards CACNA1C as affecting intermediate phenotypes of psychiatric disorders.
These studies demonstrate that the risk genotype at rs1006737 is associated with significant functional alterations in human iNs, and may direct future efforts at developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of psychiatric disease.
Genome-wide association studies have identified the CACNA1C single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1006737 as one of the most consistent genetic findings as susceptibility locus for major psychiatric disorders.