Predicting phenotypic effects of gene perturbations in C. elegans using an integrated network model

Abstract

Predicting the phenotype of an organism from its genotype is a central question In genetics. Most importantly, we would like to find out if the perturbation of a single gene may be the cause of a disease. However, our current ability to predict thei phenotypic effects of perturbations of individual genes is limited. Network models of genes are one tool for tackling this problem. In a recent study, (Lee et al.) it has been shown that network models covering the majority of genes of an organism can be used for accurately predicting phenotypic effects of gene perturbations in multicellular organisms. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.