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From Genotype to Phenotype in the Drosophila Wing
Author(s) -
Houle David
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.343.2
Subject(s) - phenotype , biology , phenomics , evolutionary biology , genetics , genome , drosophila melanogaster , natural selection , selection (genetic algorithm) , genotype , drosophila (subgenus) , range (aeronautics) , gene , computational biology , genomics , computer science , materials science , artificial intelligence , composite material
The central goal of phenomics is to expand our ability to measure phenotypes. A wider range of phenotypic data is critical to understanding the genotype‐phenotype map, the total set of processes through which genomes shape phenotypes. The evolutionary fate of a DNA variant will depend on its effects on all phenotypes, not just the one we happen to have measured. The causation of key biological phenomena such as natural selection and disease takes place in a continuous phenotype space whose relationship to genomes is only dimly grasped. I describe a systematic approach to the study of the genotype‐phenotype map using phenomic data for one well‐studied model system, the wing of Drosophila melanogaster. We are constructing a Dictionary of Genetic effects by systematically and quantitatively manipulating gene expression, then measuring the resulting effect on the wing phenotype. We demonstrate that the structure of genetic variation from the Dictionary is similar to variation among species, in standing genetic variation, and at the mutational level. This suggests that the map itself is conservative and perhaps the product of natural selection.