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New publication: From QTL to gene: C. elegans facilitates discoveries of the genetic mechanisms underlying natural variation

Published on
2021年7月7日

Linking quantitative trait variation to genes is essential to understand evolutionary processes that underlie trait variation. Many studies have mapped loci that impact diverse traits measured in a number of species; however, experimental validation of candidate genes is difficult/impossible in most species.

Here we review the discoveries of quantitative trait genes in the model organism C. elegans from the past 15 years. With this data, we can start to make inferences about evolution from these quantitative trait genes, including the roles that coding versus noncoding variation, gene family expansion, common versus rare variants, pleiotropy, and epistasis play in trait variation across this species.