Summary:
Determining the genetic architecture of complex traits is challenging because phenotypic variation
arises from interactions between multiple, environmentally sensitive alleles. We quantified genomewide
transcript abundance and phenotypes for six ecologically relevant traits in D. melanogaster
wild-derived inbred lines. We observed 10,096 genetically variable transcripts and high heritabilities
for all organismal phenotypes. The transcriptome is highly genetically inter-correlated, forming 241
transcriptional modules. Modules are enriched for transcripts in common pathways, gene ontology
categories, tissue-specific expression, and transcription factor binding sites. The high transcriptional
connectivity allows us to infer genetic networks and the function of predicted genes based on
annotations of other genes in the network. Regressions of organismal phenotypes on transcript
abundance implicate several hundred candidate genes that form modules of biologically meaningful
correlated transcripts affecting each phenotype. Overlapping transcripts in modules associated with
different traits provides insight into the molecular basis of pleiotropy between complex traits.
Full Article
Animals and Tissue Used to Generate This Set of Data:
The raw microarray data are deposited in the ArrayExpress database (www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress,) under accession
number E-MEXP-1594
