Joseph Bindu, Atwell Susanna, Corwin Jason A, Li Baohua, Kliebenstein Daniel J
Department of Plant Sciences, University of California Davis, Davis, CA USA.
Department of Plant Sciences, University of California Davis, Davis, CA USA ; DynaMo Center of Excellence, University of Copenhagen Frederiksberg, Denmark.
Front Plant Sci. 2014 Sep 11;5:461. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2014.00461. eCollection 2014.
A central goal of systems biology is to develop models that are both predictive and accurately describe the biological system. One complexity to this endeavor is that it is possible to develop models that appear predictive even if they use far fewer components than the biological system itself uses for the same process. This problem also occurs in quantitative genetics where it is often possible to describe the variation in a system using fewer genes than are actually variable due to the complications of linkage between causal polymorphisms and population structure. Thus, there is a crucial need to begin an empirical investigation into the true number of components that are used by biological systems to determine a phenotypic outcome. In this study, we use a meta-analysis of directly comparable metabolomics quantitative studies using quantitative trait locus mapping and genome wide association mapping to show that it is currently not possible to estimate how many genetic loci are truly polymorphic within Arabidopsis thaliana. Our analysis shows that it would require the analysis of at least a 1000 line bi-parental population to begin to estimate how many polymorphic loci control metabolic variation within Arabidopsis. Understanding the base number of loci that are actually involved in determining variation in metabolic systems is fundamental to developing systems models that are truly reflective of how metabolism is modulated within a living organism.
系统生物学的一个核心目标是开发出既具有预测性又能准确描述生物系统的模型。这项工作的一个复杂之处在于，即使所开发的模型使用的组件比生物系统自身在同一过程中使用的组件少得多，也有可能使其看起来具有预测性。这个问题在数量遗传学中也会出现，由于因果多态性与群体结构之间的连锁复杂性，通常有可能用比实际可变基因更少的基因来描述一个系统中的变异。因此，迫切需要对生物系统用于确定表型结果的真实组件数量展开实证研究。在本研究中，我们对使用数量性状基因座定位和全基因组关联定位的直接可比的代谢组学定量研究进行了荟萃分析，结果表明目前无法估计拟南芥中真正多态的基因座数量。我们的分析表明，至少需要对一个由1000个品系组成的双亲子代群体进行分析，才有可能开始估计控制拟南芥代谢变异的多态基因座数量。了解实际参与决定代谢系统变异的基因座基数，对于开发能够真实反映生物体新陈代谢调控方式的系统模型至关重要。
