cis versus trans effects
Zhang X & Borevitz JO 2009 Global analysis of allele-specific expression in Arabidopsis thaliana. Genetics 182:943-954.
- in a single hybrid pair, cis variation is not tested across segregating trans backgrounds
- thus, the cis × trans effect cannot be dissected
- a recent study in Drosophila suggests however that cis × trans dependent regulation may not be common (Wittkopp et al. 2008a)
- the approach of dissecting cis- and trans-regulatory variation using F1 hybrid system, however, has potential drawbacks
- the detection of cis effect relies on the subtraction of hybrid cis effect from parental expression difference
- in the hybrid both additive trans effect and nonadditive trans × trans and cis × trans interaction could occur
- the interpretation of the detected trans effect could be complicated when epistatic interaction is common
- another drawback of this approach is that epigenetic regulation could potentially interfere with the detection of cis-genetic variation