Natural variation in Drosophila shows weak pleiotropic effects.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Pleiotropy describes the phenomenon in which a gene affects multiple phenotypes. The extent of pleiotropy is still disputed, mainly because of issues of inadequate power of analyses. A further challenge is that empirical tests of pleiotropy are restricted to a small subset of all possible phenotypes. To overcome these limitations, we propose a new measurement of pleiotropy that integrates across many phenotypes and multiple generations to improve power.

Results

We infer pleiotropy from the fitness cost imposed by frequency changes of pleiotropic loci. Mixing Drosophila simulans populations, which adapted independently to the same new environment using different sets of genes, we show that the adaptive frequency changes have been accompanied by measurable fitness c

SUBMITTER: Christodoulaki E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9109288 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature