The impact of species-wide gene expression variation on Caenorhabditis elegans complex traits

Gene expression links genomic variation to organismal trait differences. Here, the authors identify regulatory loci underlying gene expression variation in C. elegans and demonstrate how this variation could impact other complex traits. Phenotypic variation in organism-level traits has been studied in Caenorhabditis elegans wild strains, but the impacts of differences in gene expression and the underlying regulatory mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we use natural variation in gene expression to connect genetic variants to differences in organismal-level traits, including drug and toxicant responses. We perform transcriptomic analyses on 207 genetically distinct C. elegans wild strains to study natural regulatory variation of gene expression. Using this massive dataset, we perform genome-wide association mappings to investigate the genetic basis underlying gene expression variation and reveal complex genetic architectures. We find a large collection of hotspots enriched for expression quantitative trait loci across the genome. We further use mediation analysis to understand how gene expression variation could underlie organism-level phenotypic variation for a variety of complex traits. These results reveal the natural diversity in gene expression and possible regulatory mechanisms in this keystone model organism, highlighting the promise of using gene expression variation to understand how phenotypic diversity is generated.

Automated summary

This study investigates the association between genetic variation and gene expression variation in C. elegans, linking gene expression to organismal trait differences. The authors identify regulatory loci underlying gene expression variation and demonstrate how this variation could impact complex traits.