Studies reveal the mechanisms behind tumor metastasis and how to stymie it. But primary tumors still get the lion’s share of researchers’ attention.
Image courtesy of Science Source/Phanie.
New Research In
Physical Sciences
Featured Portals
Articles by Topic
Biological Sciences
Featured Portals
Articles by Topic
Contributed by Gerald R. Fink, April 22, 2014 (sent for review February 28, 2014)
Significance
We show that the phenotype of an organism can be affected both by chromosomal and nonchromosomal information. The influence of the cytoplasmic, nonchromosomal information can have a profound effect on the phenotype and can be great enough to mask the effect of a chromosomal mutation. Our ability to quantify the contribution of this cytoplasmic component shows that it could comprise a significant portion of the “missing heritability.” In addition, our findings highlight the possibility of mitochondrial/nuclear incompatibility, which could be an important consideration in evaluating the feasibility of mitochondrial replacement therapy in humans.
Abstract
The measurement of any nonchromosomal genetic contribution to the heritability of a trait is often confounded by the inability to control both the chromosomal and nonchromosomal information in a population. We have designed a unique system in yeast where we can control both sources of information so that the phenotype of a single chromosomal polymorphism can be measured in the presence of different cytoplasmic elements. With this system, we have shown that both the source of the mitochondrial genome and the presence or absence of a dsRNA virus influence the phenotype of chromosomal variants that affect the growth of yeast. Moreover, by considering this nonchromosomal information that is passed from parent to offspring and by allowing chromosomal and nonchromosomal information to exhibit nonadditive interactions, we are able to account for much of the heritability of growth traits. Taken together, our results highlight the importance of including all sources of heritable information in genetic studies and suggest a possible avenue of attack for finding additional missing heritability.
Footnotes
- ↵1To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: gifford{at}mit.edu or gfink{at}wi.mit.edu.
Author contributions: D.K.G. and G.R.F. designed research; M.D.E., A.S.-N., and L.D. performed research; M.D.E., A.S.-N., and L.D. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; M.D.E. analyzed data; and M.D.E., D.K.G., and G.R.F. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1407126111/-/DCSupplemental.
Nonchromosomal interactions affect heritability
More Articles of This Classification
Biological Sciences
Genetics
Related Content
Cited by...
Similar Articles
You May Also be Interested in
Both social and engineering factors must be further explored and scrutinized across the globe—as should notions of justice related to flooding impacts and responses.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.com/Ekaterina Pokrovsky.
Blair Hedges discusses the state of Haiti's remaining forests and the consequences to biodiversity.
A study uncovers genetic evidence of early colonization of Jamaica by primates and suggests that adaptation can shape species morphology in novel environments, even when species come from morphologically conservative families.
Image courtesy of Lorraine Meeker (American Museum of Natural History, New York).
Researchers report that some moth species use sound absorbing-scales to avoid detection by bats and suggest that the findings could aid the design of biologically inspired sound absorbers for an array of applications, including noise mitigation and building acoustics.
Image courtesy of Thomas R. Neil.
