title: Fine-mapping natural alleles: quantitative complementation to the rescue.
abstract: Mapping the genes responsible for natural variation and divergence is a challenging task. Many studies have mapped genes to genomic regions or generated lists of candidates, but few studies have implicated specific genes with a high standard of evidence. I propose that combining recent advances in genomic engineering with a modified version of the quantitative complementation test will help turn candidate genes into causal genes. By creating loss-of-function mutations in natural strains, and using these mutations to quantitatively fail-to-complement natural alleles, fine mapping should be greatly facilitated. As an example, I propose that the CRISPR/Cas9 system could be combined with the FLP/FRT system to fine-map genes in the numerous systems where inversions have frustrated these efforts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Noble Hall, Room 2128, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106-9620, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Turner
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D002874:Chromosome Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D064112:Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test / Q000379:methods*; D016296:Mutagenesis; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci
keywords: CRISPR; QTL mapping; inversions; quantitative complementation