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Brief Communication

Nature Genetics 38, 418–420 (1 April 2006) | doi:10.1038/ng1761

Epistasis and the release of genetic variation during long-term selection

|[Ouml]|rjan Carlborg , Lina Jacobsson , Per |[Aring]|hgren , Paul Siegel & Leif Andersson

It is an enigma how long-term selection in model organisms and agricultural species can lead to marked phenotypic changes without exhausting genetic variation for the selected trait. Here, we show that the genetic architecture of an apparently major locus for growth in chicken dissects into a genetic network of four interacting loci.