Journal
NATURE REVIEWS GENETICS
Volume 15, Issue 1, Pages 22-33Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/nrg3627
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- US National Institutes of Health [R01 GM45146, R01 GM076083, R01 GM59469, R01 AA016560]
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES [R01GM076083, R01GM045146, R01GM059469] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM [R01AA016560] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The role of epistasis in the genetic architecture of quantitative traits is controversial, despite the biological plausibility that nonlinear molecular interactions underpin the genotype-phenotype map. This controversy arises because most genetic variation for quantitative traits is additive. However, additive variance is consistent with pervasive epistasis. In this Review, I discuss experimental designs to detect the contribution of epistasis to quantitative trait phenotypes in model organisms. These studies indicate that epistasis is common, and that additivity can be an emergent property of underlying genetic interaction networks. Epistasis causes hidden quantitative genetic variation in natural populations and could be responsible for the small additive effects, missing heritability and the lack of replication that are typically observed for human complex traits.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available