We will carry out a whole range of quantitative genetics studies on phenotypic distributions, variance component analyses and response to selection regimes with the most advanced methodology available. Moreover, we will use our setup to study very old, but still poorly understood concepts like additivity, dominance, epistasis, pleiotropy and penetrance. As the model describes the adult heart we will also study how genetic variation being spelled out during development and influencing key structural parameters influences the results of the genetic analysis. These genetic studies will be done in concert with the multivariate analyses.
Through these genetic investigations we will not only gain a thorough understanding of the genotype-phenotype map of the heart (model), but will also make substantial contributions to a general quantitative genetics theory based on how genes work and interact. We think such an epistemically mature theory will have the following four characteristics: (a) it will be based on an understanding and explicit modelling of the basic regulatory structures and mechanisms observed in the organism; (b) it will be capable of explaining population-level genetic phenomena, such as genetic correlations, with reference to these regulatory principles; (c) the mathematical language of nonlinear system dynamics will be a core element of the mathematical foundations of this theory; and (d) in stark contrast to current practice in biological science, nonlinear system dynamics and mathematical statistics will become highly integrated. This eVITA project gives us the opportunity to become closely associated with building such a future quantitative genetics theory through this work package as well as WP3.
People
- Stig W. Omholt
- Peter Hunter
- Harald Martens
- Ulf Indahl
- Arne Gjuvsland
- Jon Olav Vik
- Øyvind Nordbø
- Yunpeng Wang
Collaborators
