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Measuring Gene Interactions

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Epistasis

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1253))

Abstract

Measurement is the assignment of numbers to reality, and valid measurement requires that these numbers represent relevant aspects of reality. I discuss epistatic gene interactions from a measurement-theoretical perspective and argue that the standard measurements of epistasis in classical quantitative genetics have failed to capture aspects of epistasis that are relevant to selection dynamics and adaptation. Instead, the use of statistically motivated measurements such as epistatic variance components has led to the misconception that epistasis is dynamically inert. Here, I review work showing that patterns of epistasis may have profound effects on evolutionary dynamics and discuss how these patterns can be measured.

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Acknowledgements

I thank the editors for the invitation to contribute, and Jose Álvarez-Castro for discussions and comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo, P.B. 1066, Blindern, Oslo, 0316, Norway

    Thomas F. Hansen

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  1. Thomas F. Hansen
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Correspondence to Thomas F. Hansen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, Institute of Quantitative Biomedical Sciences, Geisel School of Medicine, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA

    Jason H. Moore

  2. Department of Genetics, Institute of Quantitative Biomedical Sciences, Geisel School of Medicine, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA

    Scott M. Williams

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Hansen, T.F. (2015). Measuring Gene Interactions. In: Moore, J., Williams, S. (eds) Epistasis. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1253. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2155-3_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2155-3_7

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-2154-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-2155-3

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