A genomewide association study for bristle number variation in Drosophila melanogaster
Decades of research has uncovered a wealth of mechanistic information about the development of sensory bristles in Drosophila melanogaster. By studying large-effect, often loss-of-function mutations, many genes have been associated with bristle development, morphology, patterning, and number. Equally, the number of bristles present in certain areas of the fly cuticle is a classic quantitative…
A comprehensive genome-wide association study (GWAS) was conducted to investigate the genetic variation in the number of bristles in Drosophila melanogaster. Extensive research has already identified numerous genes associated with the development, morphology, patterning, and number of sensory bristles. The study utilized a large sample size of 897 male D. melanogaster individuals derived from a wild-derived, lab-adapted outbred population.
After quality control and filtering, over 780,000 variants with frequencies greater than 5% were identified. The heritability estimates for abdominal bristle number (ABN) and sternopleural bristle number (SBN) were found to be 0.28 and 0.35, respectively. Genome scans revealed 1085 and 211 significant sites for ABN and SBN, respectively.
These significant sites were primarily clustered into three locations: one on the middle of chromosome 3L for ABN, another at the tip of the X chromosome for SBN (a region previously associated with bristle number QTL), and a third on chromosome 2L. The findings were cross-referenced with existing studies that identified genes controlling bristle number/development, highlighting several candidates that may harbor functional variants contributing to the genetic variation in bristle number.
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