Genetic Dissection of Complex Traits: From Functional Mapping to Systems Mapping

[摘要] Many statistical tools have been developed to map and study thegenetic architecture of complex phenotypes important to agriculture,biology, and biomedicine [1-9]. Thanks to recent advances insequencing and genotyping technologies, DNA-based marker datacrucial for genetic mapping can be generated almost with no limit.A new challenge that faces methodological development is how todissect a phenotypic trait into its biological components, study thegenetic control mechanisms of these components and their mutualcoordination and, ultimately, reorganize key components into a newphenotype beneficial to humans. In this editorial, we review a recentadvance of statistical development that can potentially address thischallenge.