On the Pleiotropic Structure of the Genotype–Phenotype Map and the Evolvability of Complex Organisms
- 1 March 2012
- journal article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Genetics
- Vol. 190 (3), 1131-1137
- https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.111.135681
Abstract
Analyses of effects of mutants on many traits have enabled estimates to be obtained of the magnitude of pleiotropy, and in reviews of such data others have concluded that the degree of pleiotropy is highly restricted, with implications on the evolvability of complex organisms. We show that these conclusions are highly dependent on statistical assumptions, for example significance levels. We analyze models with pleiotropic effects on all traits at all loci but by variable amounts, considering distributions of numbers of traits declared significant, overall pleiotropic effects, and extent of apparent modularity of effects. We demonstrate that these highly pleiotropic models can give results similar to those obtained in analyses of experimental data and that conclusions on limits to evolvability through pleiotropy are not robust.Keywords
This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
- The pleiotropic structure of the genotype–phenotype map: the evolvability of complex organismsNature Reviews Genetics, 2011
- One Hundred Years of Pleiotropy: A RetrospectiveGenetics, 2010
- Genomic patterns of pleiotropy and the evolution of complexityProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2010
- Mutations and quantitative genetic variation: lessons fromDrosophilaPhilosophical Transactions B, 2010
- Analysis and implications of mutational variationGenetica, 2008
- Pleiotropic scaling of gene effects and the ‘cost of complexity’Nature, 2008
- Modularity and community detection in bipartite networksPhysical Review E, 2007
- Specificity and Stability in Topology of Protein NetworksScience, 2002
- ADAPTATION AND THE COST OF COMPLEXITYEvolution, 2000
- The genetical theory of natural selectionPublished by Biodiversity Heritage Library ,1930