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Updated: May 30, 2026

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Published on: November 12, 2012
Genetic architecture of growth traits revealed by global epistatic interactions
Abstract:
Epistasis has long been recognized as fundamentally important in understanding the structure, function, and evolutionary dynamics of biological systems. Yet, little is known about how it is distributed underlying specific traits. Based on a global map of epistatic interactions in baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we show that epistasis is prevalent (∼13% increase from random expectation) and displays modular architecture among genes that underlie the same growth traits. More interestingly, our results indicate that hub genes responsible for the same growth traits tend to link epistatically with each other more frequently than random expectation. Our results provide a genome-wide perspective on the genetic architecture of growth traits in a eukaryotic organism.
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An example of how genetic background affects phenotype can be seen in horses. The Extension gene in horses is responsible for their coat color. A wild-type gene (EE) produces black pigment in the coat, while a mutant gene (ee) produces red pigment. A...

