Genomic consequences of background effects on scalloped mutant expressivity in the wing of Drosophila

ABSTRACT: Genetic background effects contribute to the phenotypic consequences of mutations, and are pervasive across all domains of life that have been examined, yet little is known about how they modify genetic systems. In part this is due to the lack of tractable model systems that have been explicitly developed to study the genetic and evolutionary consequences of background effects. In this study we demonstrate that phenotypic expressivity of the scalloped[E3] mutation of Drosophila melanogaster is background dependent, and is the result of at least one major modifier segregating between two standard lab wild-type strains. Microarrays were used to examine the consequences of genetic background effects on the global transcriptome. Expression differences between wild-type strains were found to be as large or larger than the effects of mutations with substantial phenotypic effects, and expression differences between wild-type and mutant varied significantly between genetic backgrounds. Significantly, we demonstrate that the epistatic interaction between sd[E3] and an optomotor blind mutation is background dependent. The results are discussed within the context of developing a complex but more realistic view of the consequences of genetic background effects with respect to mutational analysis, and studies of epistasis and cryptic genetic variation segregating in natural populations Keywords: Mutant vs wild-type comparison 2 wild-type strains of D. melanogaster (Oregon-R and Samarkand, both marked with white) each with and without the scalloped[E3] mutation. Thus a 2x2 factorial design with a balanced incomplete block (block=slide) design in a full loop configuration with dye swapping.

ORGANISM(S): Drosophila melanogaster

SUBMITTER: Ian Dworkin 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-13779 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress