Complex Coding and Regulatory Polymorphisms in a Restriction Factor Determine the Susceptibility of Drosophila to Viral Infection.

ABSTRACT: It is common to find that major-effect genes are an important cause of variation in susceptibility to infection. Here we have characterized natural variation in a gene called pastrel that explains over half of the genetic variance in susceptibility to the Drosophila C virus (DCV) in populations of Drosophila melanogaster We found extensive allelic heterogeneity, with a sample of seven alleles of pastrel from around the world conferring four phenotypically distinct levels of resistance. By modifying candidate SNPs in transgenic flies, we show that the largest effect is caused by an amino acid polymorphism that arose when an ancestral threonine was mutated to alanine, greatly increasing resistance to DCV. Overexpression of the ancestral, susceptible allele provide

SUBMITTER: Cao C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5560813 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature