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Search for evolutionary capacitor and its genetic buffering effect on quantitative traits
| ◆FJSPS Grand-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) ◆Principal Investigator: Kazuo Takahashi ◆Period: FY2013-FY2016 Genetic variation is essential for every organism to adapt to changing environment. The mechanism of how genetic variation is maintained in natural populations has been studied for a long time, and recently, the role of “capacitors” have attracted a lot of attention. Because they enhance evolvability of organisms and have potential to promote adaptation, they are also called “evolutionary capacitors.” Although knowledge of the candidate evolutionary capacitors is limited at the moment, theoretical studies predict that evolutionary capacitance is a general feature of gene regulatory networks. To understand the nature of the rapid adaptation and evolution promoted by evolutionary capacitors, search for more evolutionary capacitors and the investigation of how they work are necessary. In this project, I use one of the model organisms, Drosophila melanogaster to search for candidate genes and genomic regions for evolutionary capacitors and will examine their function. |
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