Genetic Regulation of Phenotypic Plasticity and Canalisation in Yeast Growth.

The ability of a genotype to show diverse phenotypes in different environments is called phenotypic plasticity. Phenotypic plasticity helps populations to evade extinctions in novel environments, facilitates adaptation and fuels evolution. However, most studies focus on understanding the genetic bas...

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Main Authors: Anupama Yadav, Kaustubh Dhole, Himanshu Sinha
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2016-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5017675?pdf=render
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author Anupama Yadav
Kaustubh Dhole
Himanshu Sinha
author_facet Anupama Yadav
Kaustubh Dhole
Himanshu Sinha
author_sort Anupama Yadav
collection DOAJ
description The ability of a genotype to show diverse phenotypes in different environments is called phenotypic plasticity. Phenotypic plasticity helps populations to evade extinctions in novel environments, facilitates adaptation and fuels evolution. However, most studies focus on understanding the genetic basis of phenotypic regulation in specific environments. As a result, while it's evolutionary relevance is well established, genetic mechanisms regulating phenotypic plasticity and their overlap with the environment specific regulators is not well understood. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is highly sensitive to the environment, which acts as not just external stimulus but also as signalling cue for this unicellular, sessile organism. We used a previously published dataset of a biparental yeast population grown in 34 diverse environments and mapped genetic loci regulating variation in phenotypic plasticity, plasticity QTL, and compared them with environment-specific QTL. Plasticity QTL is one whose one allele exhibits high plasticity whereas the other shows a relatively canalised behaviour. We mapped phenotypic plasticity using two parameters-environmental variance, an environmental order-independent parameter and reaction norm (slope), an environmental order-dependent parameter. Our results show a partial overlap between pleiotropic QTL and plasticity QTL such that while some plasticity QTL are also pleiotropic, others have a significant effect on phenotypic plasticity without being significant in any environment independently. Furthermore, while some plasticity QTL are revealed only in specific environmental orders, we identify large effect plasticity QTL, which are order-independent such that whatever the order of the environments, one allele is always plastic and the other is canalised. Finally, we show that the environments can be divided into two categories based on the phenotypic diversity of the population within them and the two categories have differential regulators of phenotypic plasticity. Our results highlight the importance of identifying genetic regulators of phenotypic plasticity to comprehensively understand the genotype-phenotype map.
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spelling doaj.art-6c8803dbbebc4e93980652d35ba7fd0d2022-12-21T20:29:46ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032016-01-01119e016232610.1371/journal.pone.0162326Genetic Regulation of Phenotypic Plasticity and Canalisation in Yeast Growth.Anupama YadavKaustubh DholeHimanshu SinhaThe ability of a genotype to show diverse phenotypes in different environments is called phenotypic plasticity. Phenotypic plasticity helps populations to evade extinctions in novel environments, facilitates adaptation and fuels evolution. However, most studies focus on understanding the genetic basis of phenotypic regulation in specific environments. As a result, while it's evolutionary relevance is well established, genetic mechanisms regulating phenotypic plasticity and their overlap with the environment specific regulators is not well understood. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is highly sensitive to the environment, which acts as not just external stimulus but also as signalling cue for this unicellular, sessile organism. We used a previously published dataset of a biparental yeast population grown in 34 diverse environments and mapped genetic loci regulating variation in phenotypic plasticity, plasticity QTL, and compared them with environment-specific QTL. Plasticity QTL is one whose one allele exhibits high plasticity whereas the other shows a relatively canalised behaviour. We mapped phenotypic plasticity using two parameters-environmental variance, an environmental order-independent parameter and reaction norm (slope), an environmental order-dependent parameter. Our results show a partial overlap between pleiotropic QTL and plasticity QTL such that while some plasticity QTL are also pleiotropic, others have a significant effect on phenotypic plasticity without being significant in any environment independently. Furthermore, while some plasticity QTL are revealed only in specific environmental orders, we identify large effect plasticity QTL, which are order-independent such that whatever the order of the environments, one allele is always plastic and the other is canalised. Finally, we show that the environments can be divided into two categories based on the phenotypic diversity of the population within them and the two categories have differential regulators of phenotypic plasticity. Our results highlight the importance of identifying genetic regulators of phenotypic plasticity to comprehensively understand the genotype-phenotype map.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5017675?pdf=render
spellingShingle Anupama Yadav
Kaustubh Dhole
Himanshu Sinha
Genetic Regulation of Phenotypic Plasticity and Canalisation in Yeast Growth.
PLoS ONE
title Genetic Regulation of Phenotypic Plasticity and Canalisation in Yeast Growth.
title_full Genetic Regulation of Phenotypic Plasticity and Canalisation in Yeast Growth.
title_fullStr Genetic Regulation of Phenotypic Plasticity and Canalisation in Yeast Growth.
title_full_unstemmed Genetic Regulation of Phenotypic Plasticity and Canalisation in Yeast Growth.
title_short Genetic Regulation of Phenotypic Plasticity and Canalisation in Yeast Growth.
title_sort genetic regulation of phenotypic plasticity and canalisation in yeast growth
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5017675?pdf=render
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