New Epistasis Essay
Dr. Patrick Phillips has published a very nice new review/essay on epistasis. Is epistasis purely a genetic phenomena as early definitions suggest? Or does epistasis exist in the absence genetic variation? Would Bateson's definition of epistasis have been different had he known about system biology? These are questions we think about. A must read.
Phillips PC. Epistasis - the essential role of gene interactions in the structure and evolution of genetic systems. Nat Rev Genet. 2008 [PubMed]
Epistasis, or interactions between genes, has long been recognized as fundamentally important to understanding the structure and function of genetic pathways and the evolutionary dynamics of complex genetic systems. With the advent of high-throughput functional genomics and the emergence of systems approaches to biology, as well as a new-found ability to pursue the genetic basis of evolution down to specific molecular changes, there is a renewed appreciation both for the importance of studying gene interactions and for addressing these questions in a unified, quantitative manner.
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