TITLE:

GENETIC ROBUSTNESS BY MODULARITY AND REWIRING

DATE:

Friday, February 4th, 2011

TIME:

3:30 PM

LOCATION:

GMCS 214

SPEAKER:

Animesh Ray, Keck Graduate Institute

ABSTRACT:

How robust is the genome? On way to ask that same question is to ask how many other genes in the genome, if perturbed, can potentially suppress a given lethal mutation. We answered this by the systematic experimental determination of a genome wide dosage suppressor interaction network constructed for 55 conditional lethal mutants (mostly with defects in cell division and transcription genes) of yeast. We discover that a surprisingly dense network of genetic interactions can bypass the requirement of many genes essential for viability: on average nearly 10 times as many genes as the number of lethal mutations! Computational analysis showed that suppressor-mutant pairs appear to map within module boundaries, but individual genes of a pair might be functionally distant. We found evidence of several suppression mechanisms, including (1) recruitment of functionally unrelated genes to novel function, (2) adding novel interactions within and between protein complexes to avoid fragility, and (3) recruitment of paralogous genes. Suppressor network analysis provides evidence for hitherto unrecognized levels of functional modularity, which can be potentially recruited for adaptation during evolution.

HOST:

Jose Castillo

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