title: The functional relationships underlying a synthetic genetic network.
abstract: Here, we focus on synthetic lethal genetic interactions, examples of genetic enhancements, where mutations in two different genes result in lethality but only when present together. We recently identified the synthetic lethal network around the PKC1 gene encoding the essential protein kinase C of yeast. We found that this network is heavily enriched for interactions with genes whose products are closely linked to Pkc1 signaling in vivo. Here, we show that: the PKC1 gene elicits a distinct spectrum of genetic interactions to SLT2, encoding a non-essential component of the very same signaling pathway. We also show that the terminal phenotype underlying the synthetic lethal network around PKC1 is not uniform. Synthetic lethal genetic networks thus appear to be very heterogeneous in nature with important implications for what functional relationships can be discovered from them.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Genetics and Integrative & Systems Biology; Faculty of Biomedical and Life Sciences; University of Glasgow; Glasgow, Scotland UK.
authors.forename: Sue A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.forename: Joseph V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Gray
references.citation: Trends Genet. 1993 Oct;9(10):362-6
references.pmid: 8273152
references.citation: Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 2006;71:141-8
references.pmid: 17381290
references.citation: Differentiation. 2004 Mar;72(2-3):81-91
references.pmid: 15066188
references.citation: Immunol Cell Biol. 2005 Jun;83(3):217-23
references.pmid: 15877598
references.citation: Trends Genet. 2006 Jan;22(1):56-63
references.pmid: 16309778
references.citation: Curr Biol. 2002 Apr 2;12(7):588-93
references.pmid: 11937029
references.citation: Science. 2001 Feb 9;291(5506):1001-4
references.pmid: 11232561
references.citation: Science. 2004 Feb 6;303(5659):808-13
references.pmid: 14764870
references.citation: J Biol. 2006;5(4):11
references.pmid: 16762047
references.citation: Eukaryot Cell. 2008 Nov;7(11):1880-7
references.pmid: 18806213
references.citation: Science. 2001 Dec 14;294(5550):2364-8
references.pmid: 11743205
references.citation: Mol Cell. 2004 Nov 5;16(3):487-96
references.pmid: 15525520
references.citation: Nat Genet. 2005 Oct;37(10):1147-52
references.pmid: 16155567
references.citation: Microbiol Mol Biol Rev. 2005 Jun;69(2):262-91
references.pmid: 15944456