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Genetic and environmental effects on complex traits in mice.
William Valdar1, Leah C Solberg, Dominique Gauguier
1Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom. valdar@well.ox.ac.uk
Genetics
|August 5, 2006
Summary
Environmental factors significantly impact complex traits in mice, often more than genetic background alone. Understanding these gene-environment interactions is crucial for accurate mouse model research and human disease studies.
Area of Science:
- Genetics
- Animal Models
- Complex Traits
Background:
- Genotype-environment interaction is a known source of variation in complex trait measurement in mice.
- The magnitude of this interaction is often unquantified.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantify the heritability of 88 complex traits in genetically heterogeneous mice.
- To investigate the role of environmental and physiological covariates in gene-environment interactions.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of 2448 genetically heterogeneous mice.
- Measurement of 88 complex traits, including models of human diseases and various phenotypes.
- Examination of 15 environmental and physiological covariates for significant interactions.
Main Results:
- Environmental and physiological covariates showed a large number of significant interactions with genetic background.
- Interaction effects were more frequent and larger than main effects, with half explaining >20% of variance.
- Nine interactions exceeded 50% of variance, highlighting the substantial impact of environmental factors.
Conclusions:
- Gene-environment interactions play a critical role in complex trait variation in mouse models.
- Future studies using mouse models for gene function assays must account for these interactions.
- Findings have implications for understanding human diseases like asthma, diabetes, obesity, and anxiety.