The Majority of Animal Genes Are Required for Wild-Type Fitness
The Majority of Animal Genes Are Required for Wild-Type Fitness
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DOI：
10.1016/j.cell.2012.01.019
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发表时间：
2012-02-17
期刊：
影响因子：
64.5
通讯作者：
Fraser, Andrew G.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ramani, Arun K.;Chuluunbaatar, Tungalag;Fraser, Andrew G.
几乎所有的真核基因都是保守的，这表明它们具有必要的功能。然而，在实验分析中，只有一小部分基因具有可检测到的功能丧失表型，并且已经提出了多种理论来解释这种差异。在这里，我们使用RNA介导的干扰线虫来检查任何基因的敲除如何影响蠕虫种群的整体适合度。以前的研究通常评估单代后肉眼可检测到的表型，而我们对几代人的生长进行了定量监测。与之前的估计相反，我们发现，在这些多代种群分析中，大多数基因影响适应度，这表明遗传网络对突变不是很健壮。我们的结果表明，在单一的环境条件下，大多数动物基因发挥着重要的作用。这一比例高于酵母基因，我们认为负选择的来源在动物和单细胞真核生物中是不同的。
Almost all eukaryotic genes are conserved, suggesting that they have essential functions. However, only a minority of genes have detectable loss-of-function phenotypes in experimental assays, and multiple theories have been proposed to explain this discrepancy. Here, we use RNA-mediated interference in C. elegans to examine how knockdown of any gene affects the overall fitness of worm populations. Whereas previous studies typically assess phenotypes that are detectable by eye after a single generation, we monitored growth quantitatively over several generations. In contrast to previous estimates, we find that, in these multigeneration population assays, the majority of genes affect fitness, and this suggests that genetic networks are not robust to mutation. Our results demonstrate that, in a single environmental condition, most animal genes play essential roles. This is a higher proportion than for yeast genes, and we suggest that the source of negative selection is different in animals and in unicellular eukaryotes.