Size variation control in natural populations

What is it about?

Size of organs and organisms is regulated by many genes and pathways but little is known about how such many factors are coordinated at the systems level. We investigated the variation of genomes, transcriptomes, proteomes and size phenotypes using Drosophila wing as a model system, and revealed system-wide gene regulatory mechanisms that differentially regulate sex-dependent and sex-independent size variations.

Featured Image

Photo by Phonsay P on Unsplash

Photo by Phonsay P on Unsplash

Why is it important?

We found that size variation between sexes (sexual size dimorphism) is primarily regulated by previously established, canonical growth genes and pathways such as Wnt and TGFβ signaling pathways. In contrast, size variation within each sex is mostly controlled by novel growth genes with a variety of cellular functions. Supporting this finding, we show that expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) linked to these novel growth regulators accurately predict population-wide wing size variation within each sex.