title: Genome-wide deficiency screen for the genomic regions responsible for heat resistance in Drosophila melanogaster.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Temperature adaptation is one of the most important determinants of distribution and population size of organisms in nature. Recently, quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping and gene expression profiling approaches have been used for detecting candidate genes for heat resistance. However, the resolution of QTL mapping is not high enough to examine the individual effects of various genes in each QTL. Heat stress-responsive genes, characterized by gene expression profiling studies, are not necessarily responsible for heat resistance. Some of these genes may be regulated in association with the heat stress response of other genes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  To evaluate which heat-responsive genes are potential candidates for heat resistance with higher resolution than previous QTL mapping studies, we performed genome-wide deficiency screen for QTL for heat resistance. We screened 439 isogenic deficiency strains from the DrosDel project, covering 65.6% of the Drosophila melanogaster genome in order to map QTL for thermal resistance. As a result, we found 19 QTL for heat resistance, including 3 novel QTL outside the QTL found in previous studies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The QTL found in this study encompassed 19 heat-responsive genes found in the previous gene expression profiling studies, suggesting that they were strong candidates for heat resistance. This result provides new insights into the genetic architecture of heat resistance. It also emphasizes the advantages of genome-wide deficiency screen using isogenic deficiency libraries.
authors.affiliation: Research Core for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-naka, Kita-ku, Okayama, Japan. kaz_tak@cc.okayama-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Kazuo H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Yasukazu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okada
authors.forename: Kouhei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Teramura
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D002874:Chromosome Mapping / Q000379:methods; D059006:Chromosomes, Insect / Q000235:genetics; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D017353:Gene Deletion; D049750:Genome, Insect; D005838:Genotype; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008297:Male; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D014960:X Chromosome / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins