Pleiotropy and Modularity of Morphological Variation in Drosophila melanogaster

果蝇形态变异的多效性和模块化

• 批准号: 1556774
• 负责人: David Houle
• 金额: $ 130万
• 依托单位: Florida State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-04-01 至 2024-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1556774&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Pleiotropy; Modularity; Morphological; Variation; Drosophila

Scientists can rapidly obtain the DNA sequence of an individual, and find sites in the DNA that affect one trait. It is believed that many sites will affect more than one trait, a phenomenon called pleiotropy. The proportion of sites that are pleiotropic is not known, in part because how to find such sites is unclear. This project investigates the patterns of pleiotropy in a model organism to see whether those effects are typically restricted to one simple part of the body, or are likely to have effects on many different parts. If the team finds that a DNA change generally affects many traits, then this will suggest that those studying human genomes will have to look at diverse traits to understand how DNA changes affect specific aspects of heath. This project makes a fundamental contribution to our understanding of how genotypes map onto phenotypes. Additionally, the PIs will provide research opportunities for undergraduates in computational biology and will develop statistical software for the research community. To characterize pleiotropy, the scientific team will use the fruit fly because of its rapid generation time and low cost. They will develop methods to automate the measurement of multiple body parts, and then characterize these parts in a set of 200 fully sequenced fly stocks. They will develop statistical techniques to quantitatively characterize pleiotropy using these data. The data and statistical techniques will then be used to find the DNA sites that affect the shape of the body, and to determine whether those effects typically are restricted to one part of the body, or affect many parts. The statistical techniques to characterize pleiotropy developed in this project will apply directly to other species, including humans. This project also includes active collaboration with Norwegian scientists, including international training for US graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, which was partially funded by the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering.

科学家可以快速获得个体的 DNA 序列，并找到 DNA 中影响某一性状的位点。 据信，许多位点会影响多个性状，这种现象称为多效性。 多效性位点的比例尚不清楚，部分原因是尚不清楚如何找到此类位点。 该项目研究了模型生物体中的多效性模式，以了解这些效应通常仅限于身体的一个简单部分，还是可能对许多不同部分产生影响。 如果研究小组发现 DNA 变化通常会影响许多性状，那么这将表明那些研究人类基因组的人必须研究不同的性状，以了解 DNA 变化如何影响健康的特定方面。该项目为我们理解基因型如何映射到表型做出了根本性贡献。此外，PI 将为计算生物学本科生提供研究机会，并为研究界开发统计软件。为了表征多效性，科学团队将使用果蝇，因为它的繁殖时间快且成本低。他们将开发自动测量多个身体部位的方法，然后在一组 200 个完全测序的飞行种群中表征这些部位。 他们将开发统计技术，利用这些数据定量表征多效性。 然后，数据和统计技术将用于查找影响身体形状的 DNA 位点，并确定这些影响通常仅限于身体的某一部分，还是影响许多部分。 该项目开发的表征多效性的统计技术将直接适用于包括人类在内的其他物种。该项目还包括与挪威科学家的积极合作，包括对美国研究生和博士后研究人员的国际培训，该项目的部分资金由美国国家科学基金会国际科学与工程办公室资助。