Mapping genotype to phenotype

Abstract

Evolutionary Genomics Identifying genetic factors that contribute to trait variation among species is difficult. Weiss et al. developed a method for unbiased genome-scale mapping of trait differences and used it to work out how a range of yeast species evolved. When crossed, these yeast species produce sterile offspring, preventing the use of traditional genetic-mapping techniques. However, by reciprocal hemizygosity analysis via sequencing (RH-seq), alleles that contributed to differences in thermotolerance were spotted that diverged between two species. Surprisingly, these turned out to map to essential housekeeping genes. Thus, without taking a candidate locus approach, RH-seq allowed identification of genes responsible for traits that differ between species. Nat. Genet. 50 , 1501 (2018).