Functional genome annotation ofDrosophilaseminal fluid proteins using transcriptional genetic networks

Abstract

SummaryPredicting functional gene annotations remains a significant challenge, even in well-annotated genomes such as yeast andDrosophila. One promising, high-throughput method for gene annotation is to use correlated gene expression patterns to annotate target genes based on the known function of focal genes. TheDrosophila melanogastertranscriptome varies genetically among wild-derived inbred lines, with strong genetic correlations among the transcripts. Here, we leveraged the genetic correlations in gene expression among known seminal fluid protein (SFP) genes and the rest of the genetically varying transcriptome to identify 176 novel candidate SFPs (cSFPs). We independently validated the correlation in gene expression between seven of the cSFPs and a known SFP gene, as well as expression in male reproductive tissues. We argue that this method can be extended to other systems for which information on genetic variation in gene expression is available.