In some cases, it is not possible to identify the names of the genes affected by the RI because often a shortened form of the name of the operon is used, which creates ambiguity (several operons share the same shortened form).
All progeny classes are unambiguously identifiable because the marker genes affect different aspects of development (eye color, eye shape, bristle color, body and wing color).
One of the major challenges to understand the genetic basis of complex adaptive traits (i.e. developmental time) has been the difficulty in mapping individual genes affecting natural genetic variation because differences in genetic background can profoundly affect complex phenotypes [22], [23].
This approach has been considered because the majority of genes affected by methylation-dependent transcriptional silencing in cancer are tumour suppressor genes or genes silenced by methylation in cancers with acquired chemotherapy resistance.
Because all three genes affect the same phenotype, their gene products might function in the same cellular pathway, or they may be part of a multi-protein complex.
We suggest that these two characters are likely to be negatively associated and exhibit additive costs, because the rpoB gene affects protein synthesis (Jin and Gross 1989), whereas the WS phenotype results from the modification of more than 30 kb of DNA encoding traits involved in the over-expression of cellulose-like protein production (4244).
This is a plausible explanation because the genes commonly affected by JTX are the immune-related genes whose outcomes are known to be drastically different (sometimes opposite) depending on the strains [ 43] and the presence/absence of intestinal microflora [ 44].
Although the H19 DMR is methylated in the male germline, this DMR was chosen because H19 belongs to the cluster of genes affected in BWS.
However, because a large fraction of genes affected in spermatocytes during hyperthermia remains uncharacterized, identification of the signaling pathways involved in stress response is difficult.
Some of those genes affect the immune system.
