BIOL 039 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Moe Williams, Eye Color, Epistasis
Document Summary
Genes work together to build the complex structures and organ systems of plants and animals. The collaboration of multiple genes in the production of a single phenotypic characteristic or group of related characteristics. Trait describes an inherited variation of a gene that can produce a mutant phenotype. This is not a complete depiction of genetic reality. Numerous genes contribute to the normal red eye color of drosophila, including those responsible for production and transport of eye pigments. 3 genes involved in drosophila eye color. The brown gene produces an enzyme in a pathway that synthesizes a bright red pigment; mutant flies, bb, have brown eyes. The vermillion genes produces an enzyme in a pathway that synthesizes a brown pigment; mutant flies, vv, have bright red eyes. The white gene encodes a transporter that carries pigment to the eye; flies that do not produce this protein have white eyes. Networks of interacting genes that produce a molecular compound as their endpoint.
