title: Integrating Evolutionary Game Theory into Mechanistic Genotype-Phenotype Mapping.
abstract: Natural selection has shaped the evolution of organisms toward optimizing their structural and functional design. However, how this universal principle can enhance genotype-phenotype mapping of quantitative traits has remained unexplored. Here we show that the integration of this principle and functional mapping through evolutionary game theory gains new insight into the genetic architecture of complex traits. By viewing phenotype formation as an evolutionary system, we formulate mathematical equations to model the ecological mechanisms that drive the interaction and coordination of its constituent components toward population dynamics and stability. Functional mapping provides a procedure for estimating the genetic parameters that specify the dynamic relationship of competition and cooperation and predicting how genes mediate the evolution of this relationship during trait formation.
authors.affiliation: Center for Computational Biology, College of Biological Sciences and Technology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Xuli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Center for Computational Biology, College of Biological Sciences and Technology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Libo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Center for Computational Biology, College of Biological Sciences and Technology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Meixia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: Center for Statistical Genetics, Departments of Public Health Sciences and Statistics, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.
authors.forename: Lidan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA; Molecular Biology Laboratory, Bios Biotech Multi-Diagnostic Health Center, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gragnoli
authors.affiliation: Center for Computational Biology, College of Biological Sciences and Technology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China; Center for Statistical Genetics, Departments of Public Health Sciences and Statistics, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033, USA; Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA. Electronic address: rwu@bjfu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Rongling
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D005716:Game Theory; D005838:Genotype; D008954:Models, Biological; D010641:Phenotype; D011157:Population Dynamics; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci / Q000235:genetics*; D012641:Selection, Genetic
keywords: differential equations; functional mapping; game theory; quantitative trait loci