title: Collective effects of SNPs on transgenerational inheritance in Caenorhabditis elegans and budding yeast.
abstract: We studied the collective effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on transgenerational inheritance in Caenorhabditis elegans recombinant inbred advanced intercross lines (RIAILs) and yeast segregants. We divided the RIAILs and segregants into two groups of high and low minor allele content (MAC). RIAILs with higher MAC needed less generations of benzaldehyde training to gain a stable olfactory imprint and showed a greater change from normal after benzaldehyde training. Yeast segregants with higher MAC showed a more dramatic shortening of the lag phase length after ethanol exposure. The short lag phase as acquired by ethanol training was more dramatically lost after recovery in ethanol free medium for the high MAC group. We also found a preferential association between MAC and traits linked with higher number of additive QTLs. These results suggest a role for the collective effects of SNPs in transgenerational inheritance, and may help explain human variations in disease susceptibility.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Road, Changsha, Hunan 410078, PR China.
authors.forename: Zuobin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Road, Changsha, Hunan 410078, PR China.
authors.forename: Xian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Man
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Road, Changsha, Hunan 410078, PR China.
authors.forename: Mengying
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Road, Changsha, Hunan 410078, PR China.
authors.forename: Yimin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Road, Changsha, Hunan 410078, PR China.
authors.forename: Dejian
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Road, Changsha, Hunan 410078, PR China. Electronic address: huangshi@sklmg.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D017849:Animals, Inbred Strains; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology; D015870:Gene Expression; D040582:Inheritance Patterns; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol
keywords: C. elegans; Collective effects; Genetic variations; Minor allele content (MAC); Quantitative trait loci; RIAILs; SNPs; Segregants; Transgenerational inheritance; Yeasts