Department of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332 USA.
Department of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332 USA; Department of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332 USA.
Trends Genet. 2018 Nov;34(11):883-898. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2018.08.002. Epub 2018 Aug 27.
The ability to detect and understand epistasis in natural populations is important for understanding how biological traits are influenced by genetic variation. However, identification and characterization of epistasis in natural populations remains difficult due to statistical issues that arise as a result of multiple comparisons, and the fact that most genetic variants segregate at low allele frequencies. In this review, we discuss how model organisms may be used to manipulate genotypic combinations to power the detection of epistasis as well as test interactions between specific genes. Findings from a number of species indicate that statistical epistasis is pervasive between natural genetic variants. However, the properties of experimental systems that enable analysis of epistasis also constrain extrapolation of these results back into natural populations.
在自然种群中检测和理解上位性的能力对于理解生物特征是如何受到遗传变异影响的非常重要。然而,由于多次比较所产生的统计问题,以及大多数遗传变异以低等位基因频率分离的事实,在自然种群中识别和描述上位性仍然很困难。在这篇综述中,我们讨论了模式生物如何被用来操纵基因型组合,以提高上位性的检测能力,并测试特定基因之间的相互作用。来自许多物种的研究结果表明,自然遗传变异之间普遍存在统计上位性。然而,能够分析上位性的实验系统的特性也限制了将这些结果推断回自然种群。