How well do you know your mutation? Complex effects of genetic background on expressivity, complementation, and ordering of allelic effects.

ABSTRACT: For a given gene, different mutations influence organismal phenotypes to varying degrees. However, the expressivity of these variants not only depends on the DNA lesion associated with the mutation, but also on factors including the genetic background and rearing environment. The degree to which these factors influence related alleles, genes, or pathways similarly, and whether similar developmental mechanisms underlie variation in the expressivity of a single allele across conditions and among alleles is poorly understood. Besides their fundamental biological significance, these questions have important implications for the interpretation of functional genetic analyses, for example, if these factors alter the ordering of allelic series or patterns of complementation. We examined the impact

SUBMITTER: Chandler CH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5718557 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature