Robustness of flight performance - Supplemental materials

A central challenge of quantitative genetics is partitioning phenotypic variation into genetic and non-genetic components. These non-genetic components are usually interpreted as environmental effects; however, variation between genetically identical individuals in a common environment can still exhibit phenotypic variation. A trait's resistance to variation is called robustness, though the genetics underlying it are poorly understood. Accordingly, we performed an association study on a previously studied, whole organism trait: robustness for flight performance. Using 197 of the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP) lines, we surveyed variation across single nucleotide polymorphisms, whole genes, and epistatic interactions to find genetic modifiers robustness for flight performance. There was an abundance of genes involved in the development of sensory organs and processing of external stimuli, supporting previous work that processing proprioceptive cues is important for affecting variation in flight performance. Additionally, we tested insertional mutants for their effect on robustness using candidate genes found to modify flight performance. These results suggest several genes involved in modulating a trait mean are also important for affecting trait variance, or robustness, as well.

数量遗传学的核心挑战之一，是将表型变异划分为遗传组分与非遗传组分。这类非遗传组分通常被解读为环境效应；然而，即便在相同环境下培养的遗传同一性个体之间，仍可能出现表型变异。某一性状对抗变异的能力被称为稳健性（robustness），但其背后的遗传学机制仍未被充分阐明。
为此，我们针对一项已被前人研究过的整体生物体性状——飞行性能稳健性——开展了关联分析。我们使用197个果蝇遗传参考品系（Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel，DGRP），对单核苷酸多态性（single nucleotide polymorphisms）、全基因以及上位性互作的变异进行筛查，以寻找调控飞行性能稳健性的遗传修饰因子。
研究发现大量参与感觉器官发育与外部刺激处理的基因，这一结果与此前的研究结论相符：本体感受信号的处理对调控飞行性能变异具有重要意义。此外，我们针对筛选得到的候选基因，通过插入突变体验证了其对稳健性的调控作用。
本研究结果表明，若干参与调控性状均值的基因，同样对性状方差（即稳健性）具有关键影响。