''Drosophila'' Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP) is a suite of ''

Drosophila melanogaster ''Drosophila melanogaster'' is a species of fly (an insect of the Order (biology), order Diptera) in the family Drosophilidae. The species is often referred to as the fruit fly or lesser fruit fly, or less commonly the "vinegar fly", "pomace fly" ...

'' lines derived from an out-crossed population in

Raleigh Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. The founders of these lineages were collected from the Raleigh State Farmer's Market . The suite consists of 205 fully sequenced lines which have been inbred to near

homozygosity Zygosity (the noun, zygote, is from the Greek "yoked," from "yoke") () is the degree to which both copies of a chromosome or gene have the same genetic sequence. In other words, it is the degree of similarity of the alleles in an organism. Mos ...

. The primary goal of the DGRP is to provide a common set of strain for quantitative genetics research in ''

Drosophila ''Drosophila'' (), from Ancient Greek δρόσος (''drósos''), meaning "dew", and φίλος (''phílos''), meaning "loving", is a genus of fly, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or p ...

''. Each researcher who uses the lines from the DGRP will have access to other researchers' data, which will be stored in a publicly available database. This allows for analyses to be performed across studies without having to worry about complications arising from different labs using genomically different lines of fruit flies.

Objectives

These lines are useful for performing

QTL A quantitative trait locus (QTL) is a locus (section of DNA) that correlates with variation of a quantitative trait in the phenotype of a population of organisms. QTLs are mapped by identifying which molecular markers (such as SNPs or AFLPs) cor ...

maps, as every line is fully sequenced. This allows for

association mapping In genetics, association mapping, also known as "linkage disequilibrium mapping", is a method of mapping quantitative trait locus, quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that takes advantage of historic linkage disequilibrium to link phenotypes (observable ...

to be performed, which looks for genomic regions that are correlated to a phenotype. As labs produce QTL maps a comprehensive picture of the ''Drosophila'' genome will emerge with unprecedented resolution. Currently, dozens of quantitative traits are being examined by researchers, including

longevity Longevity may refer to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is defined Statistics, statistically as the average number of years remaining at a given age. For example, a population's life expectancy at birth ...

phototaxis Phototaxis is a kind of taxis, or locomotory movement, that occurs when a whole organism moves towards or away from a stimulus of light. This is advantageous for phototrophic organisms as they can orient themselves most efficiently to receive ...

, mating behavior, wing morphology and oviposition site preference.

Current uses

The pilot proof of concept and development of the DGRP came from the

Trudy Mackay Trudy Frances Charlene Mackay (born 10 September 1952) is the director of Clemson University's Center for Human Genetics located on the campus of the Greenwood Genetic Center. She is recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on the g ...

lab in Raleigh, North Carolina. The

sequencing In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure (sometimes incorrectly called the primary sequence) of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic linear depiction known as a sequence which succ ...

was done by

Baylor College of Medicine The Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a private medical school in Houston, Texas, United States. Originally as the Baylor University College of Medicine from 1903 to 1969, the college became independent with the current name and has been se ...

Sequencing Center, in collaboration with

Richard Gibbs Richard "Ribbs" Gibbs (born December 5, 1955) is an American film composer and music producer whose credits include '' Dr. Dolittle'', '' Big Momma's House'', '' Queen of the Damned'', the television series ''Battlestar Galactica'' and the fir ...

and Stephen Richards. The preliminary sequence data can be obtained from a public database hosted by

in the

Texas Medical Center The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is a List of neighborhoods in Houston, neighborhood in south-central Houston, Texas, United States. It is immediately south of the Houston Museum District, Museum District and west of Texas State Highway 288. Over 6 ...

. Raw sequencing data from the project can be found in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive.

Specific studies

Preliminary data has been presented at

Genetics Society of America The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is a scholarly membership society of more than 5,500 genetics researchers and educators, established in 1931. The Society was formed from the reorganization of the Joint Genetics Sections of the American Soc ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. The study investigates the sleep behavior of ''Drosophila'' to uncover the genes that are responsible. The data suggest that at least 998 genes are responsible for some of the measurable variation found, including candidate genes '' CrebB-17A'', ''

rutabaga Rutabaga (; North American English) or swede (British English and some Commonwealth English) is a root vegetable, a form of ''Brassica napus'' (which also includes rapeseed). Other names include Swedish turnip, neep (Scots language, Scots), an ...

'', ''

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'' and the gene encoding the epidermal growth factor receptor have all been implicated in other studies as being involved in sleep behavior. Researchers have also uncovered a genotype by diet interaction that drives phenotypic variation. Recently published data indicates that the interaction between a fly's

genome A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...

and its environment plays a substantial role in determining the phenotype. This suggests that some individuals are obese on a high-fat diet, but can retain a slimmer phenotype on a high-sugar diet. Other studies into genetic determinants of diet response have shown that effects on

are highly dependent on

genotype The genotype of an organism is its complete set of genetic material. Genotype can also be used to refer to the alleles or variants an individual carries in a particular gene or genetic location. The number of alleles an individual can have in a ...

, though this has also revealed new diet-responsive longevity genes such as OXR1.

References

{{Reflist Drosophila melanogaster genetics