Inheritance beyond plain heritability: variance-controlling genes in Arabidopsis thaliana

• Published in: PLoS genetics Vol. 8; no. 8; p. e1002839
• Main Authors: Shen, Xia, Pettersson, Mats, Rönnegård, Lars, Carlborg, Örjan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 01.08.2012; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Allmänt Mikrodataaanalys - metod; Anion Transport Proteins - genetics; Anion Transport Proteins - metabolism; Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis - metabolism; Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics; Arabidopsis Proteins - metabolism; Arabidopsis thaliana; Base Sequence; Biology; Databases, Genetic; Dissection; Epigenetic inheritance; Evolutionary biology; Flowers - genetics; Flowers - metabolism; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; General Microdata Analysis - methods; Genes; Genes, Plant; Genetic aspects; Genetic Association Studies; Genetic Loci; Genetic Variation; Genomes; Genotype; Genotype & phenotype; MADS Domain Proteins - genetics; MADS Domain Proteins - metabolism; Molecular Sequence Data; Molybdenum - metabolism; Phenotype; Physiological aspects; Plant genetics; Plant Leaves - genetics; Plant Leaves - metabolism; Quantitative genetics; Quantitative Trait, Heritable; Statistical methods; Statistisk modellering är grunden till en ökad förståelse inom genetik; Studies; Systems Biology; Sweden
• ISSN: 1553-7404; 1553-7390; 1553-7404
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002839

The phenotypic effect of a gene is normally described by the mean-difference between alternative genotypes. A gene may, however, also influence the phenotype by causing a difference in variance between genotypes. Here, we reanalyze a publicly available Arabidopsis thaliana dataset [1] and show that genetic variance heterogeneity appears to be as common as normal additive effects on a genomewide scale. The study also develops theory to estimate the contributions of variance differences between genotypes to the phenotypic variance, and this is used to show that individual loci can explain more than 20% of the phenotypic variance. Two well-studied systems, cellular control of molybdenum level by the ion-transporter MOT1 and flowering-time regulation by the FRI-FLC expression network, and a novel association for Leaf serration are used to illustrate the contribution of major individual loci, expression pathways, and gene-by-environment interactions to the genetic variance heterogeneity.