QUANTITATIVE GENETIC ANALYSIS OF SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION

拟议研究的长期目标是确定如何 参与信号转导的特定蛋白质的分子变异 途径对表型变异有贡献。该项目的重点是 与翅膀形状和光感受器变异相关的发育途径 在果蝇身上。一般的方法是使用遗传“测试者”背景 承载吉布森博士展示的精选低和高形态突变 表达式的修饰语。他提出，这些修饰语是同一基因中的 有助于潜在的微妙或隐秘的信号转导途径 自然种群中的长期遗传变异。在这些“敏化”中 背景测量的表型效应被映射到候选基因 关联或连锁不平衡的关联EGF-RAS途径 作图，如已被用来定义对天然猪毛变异的QTL 黑腹毛虫种群。在这一点上，目标不是确定 导致功能变异的特定突变尚未确定，但尚待量化 不同基因座在该途径中的相对效应。

The long-term objective of the proposed study is to establish how molecular variation in specific proteins involved in a signal transduction pathway contributes to phenotypic variation. The project focuses on the developmental pathways associated with wing shape and photoreceptor variation in Drosophila. The general approach is to use genetic "tester" backgrounds that bear selected hypo- and hypermorphic mutations shown by Dr. Gibson to reveal modifiers of expression. He proposes that these modifiers are genes in the same signal transduction pathway that contribute to potential subtle perhaps cryptic standing genetic variation in natural populations. In these "sensitized" backgrounds measured phenotypic effects are mapped to the candidate genes of the associated EGF-Ras pathway using association or linkage disequilibrium mapping, as has been used to define QTLs for bristle variation in natural populations of D. melanogaster. The objective at this point is not to identify specific mutations responsible for functional variation yet, but to quantify relative effects of different loci in the pathway.