Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, United States.
Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, United States.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2019 Oct;58-59:95-102. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2019.08.003. Epub 2019 Oct 6.
The phenotypic impacts of a genetic change can depend on genetic background (e.g. epistasis), as well as other contexts including environment, developmental stage, cell type, disease state, and higher-order combinations thereof. Recent advances in high-throughput phenotyping are uncovering examples of context dependence faster than genotype-phenotype maps and other core concepts are changing to reflect the dynamic nature of biological systems. Here, we review several approaches to study context dependence and their findings. In our opinion, these findings encourage more studies that examine the spectrum of effects a genetic change may have, as opposed to studies that exclusively measure the impact of a genetic change in a particular context. Studies that elucidate the mechanisms that cause the effects of genetic change to vary with context are of special interest. Previous studies of the mechanisms underlying context dependence have improved predictions of phenotype from genotype and have provided insight about how biological systems function and evolve.
遗传变化的表型影响可能取决于遗传背景（例如上位性），以及包括环境、发育阶段、细胞类型、疾病状态在内的其他环境，以及它们的高级组合。高通量表型分析的最新进展正在更快地揭示上下文依赖性的实例，而基因型-表型图谱和其他核心概念正在发生变化，以反映生物系统的动态性质。在这里，我们回顾了几种研究上下文依赖性的方法及其发现。在我们看来，这些发现鼓励更多的研究来研究遗传变化可能产生的一系列影响，而不是专门研究遗传变化在特定环境中的影响的研究。阐明导致遗传变化的影响随环境而变化的机制的研究特别有趣。先前对上下文依赖性背后的机制的研究提高了从基因型预测表型的能力，并提供了关于生物系统如何运作和进化的见解。
