The genetic differences that make each individual unique may be even more important than scientists previously thought, a new study of fruit flies suggests.
In two strains of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, underlying genetic makeup outweighs any other factor in dictating how a specific mutation will affect wing shape, geneticists Sudarshan Chari and Ian Dworkin of Michigan State University in East Lansing reported in Washington, D.C., April 8 at the 51st Annual Drosophila Research Conference.
Researchers have known that the environment has the potential to influence a mutation’s effects. But the new study suggests that a vast majority of the time, the interaction between two mutations is influenced by all the other genetic variations in an organism’s DNA — what scientists refer to as genetic background.