Williams Rohan B H, Chan Eva K F, Cowley Mark J, Little Peter F R
School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Randwick, NSW 2052, Australia.
Genome Res. 2007 Dec;17(12):1707-16. doi: 10.1101/gr.6981507.
The view that changes to the control of gene expression rather than alterations to protein sequence are central to the evolution of organisms has become something of a truism in molecular biology. In reality, the direct evidence for this is limited, and only recently have we had the ability to look more globally at how genetic variation influences gene expression, focusing upon inter-individual variation in gene expression and using microarrays to test for differences in mRNA levels. Here, we review the scope of these experimental analyses, what they are designed to tell us about genetic variation, and what are their limitations from both a technical and a conceptual viewpoint. We conclude that while we are starting to understand the impact of this class of genetic variation upon steady-state mRNA levels, we are still far from identifying the potential phenotypic and evolutionary outcomes.
基因表达调控的变化而非蛋白质序列的改变是生物体进化的核心，这一观点在分子生物学领域已成为一种公认的事实。实际上，这方面的直接证据有限，直到最近我们才有能力更全面地研究遗传变异如何影响基因表达，重点关注基因表达的个体间差异，并使用微阵列来检测mRNA水平的差异。在此，我们回顾这些实验分析的范围、它们旨在揭示的遗传变异信息，以及从技术和概念角度来看它们的局限性。我们得出结论，虽然我们开始了解这类遗传变异对稳态mRNA水平的影响，但距离确定潜在的表型和进化结果仍有很大差距。
