Genetic architecture

[3] Other researchers claim that each and every gene interaction is significant and that it is necessary to measure and model these individual systemic influences on evolutionary genetics.

[1] Classical quantitative genetics models, such as that developed by R.A. Fisher, are based on analyses of phenotype in terms of the contributions from different genes and their interactions.

Therefore, genetic architecture can help us to answer biological questions about speciation, the evolution of sex and recombination, the survival of small populations, inbreeding, understanding diseases, animal and plant breeding, and more.

There are several aspects of genetic architecture that contribute strongly to the evolvability of a system, including autonomy, mutability, coordination, epistasis, pleiotropy, polygeny, and robustness.

In this study, researchers were able to suggest a speculative framework for the evolutionary history underlying current-day phenotypic variation in human skin pigmentation based on the similarities and differences they found in the genotype.

This study showcases the intricacy of genetic architecture by providing an example of many different SNPs and mutations working together, each with a varying effect, to generate a given phenotype.

Other studies regarding genetic architecture are many and varied, but most use similar types of analyses to provide specific information regarding loci involved in producing a phenotype.