Nature Genetics32, 261 - 266 (2002)
Published online: 3 September 2002; | doi:10.1038/ng983
Variation in gene expression within and among natural populations
Marjorie F. Oleksiak1, Gary A. Churchill2
& Douglas L. Crawford1
1
School of Biological Sciences, 5007 Rockhill Road, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri 64110-2499, USA.
2
The Jackson Laboratory, 600 Main Street, Bar Harbor, Maine 04609, USA.
Correspondence should be addressed to Douglas L. Crawford crawforddo@umkc.edu
Evolution may depend more strongly on variation in gene expression than on differences between variant forms of proteins1. Regions of DNA that affect gene expression are highly variable, containing 0.6% polymorphic sites2. These naturally occurring polymorphic nucleotides can alter in vivo transcription rates3,
4,
5,
6,
7. Thus, one might expect substantial variation in gene expression between individuals. But the natural variation in mRNA expression for a large number of genes has not been measured. Here we report microarray studies addressing the variation in gene expression within and between natural populations of teleost fish of the genus Fundulus. We observed statistically significant differences in expression between individuals within the same population for approximately 18% of 907 genes. Expression typically differed by a factor of 1.5, and often more than 2.0. Differences between populations increased the variation. Much of the variation between populations was a positive function of the variation within populations and thus is most parsimoniously described as random. Some genes showed unexpected patterns of expression—changes unrelated to evolutionary distance. These data suggest that substantial natural variation exists in gene expression and that this quantitative variation is important in evolution.
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