Linked Life Data

18368117

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/18368117

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
7186
pubmed:dateCreated
2008-3-27
pubmed:abstractText
As perceived by Darwin, evolutionary adaptation by the processes of mutation and selection is difficult to understand for complex features that are the product of numerous traits acting in concert, for example the eye or the apparatus of flight. Typically, mutations simultaneously affect multiple phenotypic characters. This phenomenon is known as pleiotropy. The impact of pleiotropy on evolution has for decades been the subject of formal analysis. Some authors have suggested that pleiotropy can impede evolutionary progress (a so-called 'cost of complexity'). The plausibility of various phenomena attributed to pleiotropy depends on how many traits are affected by each mutation and on our understanding of the correlation between the number of traits affected by each gene substitution and the size of mutational effects on individual traits. Here we show, by studying pleiotropy in mice with the use of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) affecting skeletal characters, that most QTLs affect a relatively small subset of traits and that a substitution at a QTL has an effect on each trait that increases with the total number of traits affected. This suggests that evolution of higher organisms does not suffer a 'cost of complexity' because most mutations affect few traits and the size of the effects does not decrease with pleiotropy.
pubmed:commentsCorrections
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Mar
pubmed:issn
1476-4687
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Electronic
pubmed:day
27
pubmed:volume
452
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
470-2
pubmed:dateRevised
2010-11-18
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2008
pubmed:articleTitle
Pleiotropic scaling of gene effects and the 'cost of complexity'.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8106, USA. gunter.wagner@yale.edu
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S., Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't