Genetic control of the expression pathway in hub genes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

The genetic bases of complex traits are a challenging matter of study, given the/ncomplexity of the underlying regulation. High-throughput technologies enable collecting/ndata about cellular traits, such as gene expression, which acts as an intermediate/nmolecular layer between genotype and phenotype. In this project, we carried out a/nstatistical analysis to identify loci involved in regulation of gene expression (known as/nexpression quantitative trait loci - eQTL), map them on the Saccharomyces cerevisiae/ngenome and quantify their contribution by estimating the proportion of expression/nvariance explained by them. We have compared data from six different experimental/nconditions to study the influence played by environment in genetic control of expression. In addition, we also calculate the degree of connectivity of our genes under/nstudy with all other genes of the data set, so correlation between connectivity and/ngenetic control of gene expression can be analyzed. Our results indicate that genes/nwith a strong genetic regulation of their expression levels show also a large degree of/nconnectivity with other genes, becoming hubs in the underlying gene regulatory/nnetwork. Additionally, they are characterized by a very homogenous eQTL map,/ndespite environmental conditions; in contrast to those genes with a very poor genetic/nregulation, which show a very variable control of gene expression.