Genetic association studies that seek to explain the inheritance of complex traits typically fail to explain a majority of the heritability of the trait under study. Thus, we are left with a gap in the map from genotype to phenotype. Several approaches have been used to fill this gap, including those that attempt to map endophenotype such as the transcriptome, proteome or metabolome, that underlie complex traits. Here we used metabolomics to explore the nature of genetic variation for hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) resistance in the sequenced inbred
We first studied genetic variation for H2O2resistance in 179 DGRP lines and along with identifying the insulin signaling modulator
This work suggests that the metabolome can be a point of convergence for genetic variation influencing complex traits, and can efficiently elucidate mechanisms underlying trait variation.