Wu Rongling, Hou Wei, Cui Yuehua, Li Hongying, Liu Tian, Wu Song, Ma Chang-Xing, Zeng Yanru
Department of Statistics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
Recent Pat Nanotechnol. 2007;1(1):41-9. doi: 10.2174/187221007779814835.
Understanding the genetic control of quantitatively inherited traits is fundamental to agricultural, evolutionary and biomedical genetic research. A detailed picture of the genetic architecture of quantitative traits can be elucidated with a well-saturated genetic map of molecular markers. The parameters that quantify the genetic architecture of a trait include the number of individual quantitative trait loci (QTL), their genomic positions, their genetic actions and interactions, and their responsiveness to biotic or abiotic factors. A variety of genetic designs and statistical models have been developed to estimate and test these architecture-modeling parameters. With the availability of very highly abundant single nucleotide polymorphism markers, DNA sequence variants, i.e., quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs), which contribute to quantitative variation can be identified. A newly emerging active area - functional mapping, has shown its value to unravel the genetic machinery of dynamic traits at the QTL or QTN level that change their phenotypes with time or other variables. Functional mapping provides a quantitative framework for testing the interplay between genetic effects and trait formation and development and, thus, appeals to push statistical genetic analysis and modeling into the context of developmental biology. Some of the statistical methods for genetic mapping have been patented.
了解数量遗传性状的遗传控制是农业、进化和生物医学遗传研究的基础。借助分子标记的高饱和度遗传图谱，可以阐明数量性状遗传结构的详细情况。量化性状遗传结构的参数包括单个数量性状基因座（QTL）的数量、它们在基因组中的位置、它们的遗传作用和相互作用，以及它们对生物或非生物因素的响应。已经开发了多种遗传设计和统计模型来估计和检验这些构建模型的参数。随着非常丰富的单核苷酸多态性标记的出现，可以鉴定出导致数量变异的DNA序列变异，即数量性状核苷酸（QTN）。一个新兴的活跃领域——功能作图，已经显示出其在QTL或QTN水平上揭示动态性状遗传机制的价值，这些动态性状会随时间或其他变量改变其表型。功能作图提供了一个定量框架，用于测试遗传效应与性状形成和发育之间的相互作用，因此，有助于将统计遗传分析和建模引入发育生物学背景。一些遗传作图的统计方法已经获得专利。
