I am interested in exploring functional genomics by using high-throughput yeast genetic interaction data. What is genetic interactions? A genetic interaction describes a scenario where mutations of two genes can modify each other¡¯s phenotypic outcomes. For example, genes A  and B  genetically interact if the effect of a mutation in gene B  is more severe in a background where the function of gene A is also disrupted compared to the effect of mutant on gene B in a wild-type genetic background. 

Early studies on genetic interactions focus on elucidating functional relationships among genes and provides insights on how other gene(s) could maintain cellular functions when a target gene becomes dysfunctional. For example, people expect to see genetic interactions between genes acting in parallel pathways involving the same cellular process, or between genes in the same essential pathway, which would provide valuable information to delineate gene order in a given pathway.

My projects focus on elucidate how genetic interactions are distributed underlying complex traits. The issue has its important relevance in current genome-wide genetic mapping study in which genetic interaction is an important interfering factor to obscure the relationship between genotype and phenotype. We found that major effect genes underlying complex traits are well connected with each other through genetic interaction, a previously unknown genetic architecture of complex traits that can lead to difficulties in genetic mapping. Our results call on new methods using genetic interaction information in genetic mapping of organism phenotypic difference, including human diseases.