Molecular Basis of Overdominance at a Flower Color Locus
Single-gene overdominance is one of the major mechanisms proposed to explain heterosis ( , hybrid vigor), the phenomenon that hybrid offspring between two inbred lines or varieties show superior phenotypes to both parents. Although sporadic examples of single-gene overdominance have been reported ov...
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Published in | G3 : genes - genomes - genetics Vol. 7; no. 12; pp. 3947 - 3954 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
Genetics Society of America
01.12.2017
Oxford University Press |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Single-gene overdominance is one of the major mechanisms proposed to explain heterosis (
, hybrid vigor), the phenomenon that hybrid offspring between two inbred lines or varieties show superior phenotypes to both parents. Although sporadic examples of single-gene overdominance have been reported over the decades, the molecular nature of this phenomenon remains poorly understood and it is unclear whether any generalizable principle underlies the various cases. Through bulk segregant analysis, chemical profiling, and transgenic experiments, we show that loss-of-function alleles of the
(
) gene cause overdominance in anthocyanin-based flower color intensity in the monkeyflower species
FNS negatively affects flower color intensity by competing with the anthocyanin biosynthetic enzymes for the same substrates, yet positively affects flower color intensity by producing flavones, the colorless copigments required for anthocyanin stabilization, leading to enhanced pigmentation in the heterozyote (
) relative to both homozygotes (
and
). We suggest that this type of antagonistic pleiotropy (
, alleles with opposing effects on different components of the phenotypic output) might be a general principle underlying single-gene overdominance. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 These authors contributed equally to this work. |
ISSN: | 2160-1836 2160-1836 |
DOI: | 10.1534/g3.117.300336 |