Title: ``Introduction to a Bioinformatic Application: QTL Analysis meets Microarray Analysis''
Speaker: R.W. Doerge
Place: KRAN G016; Tuesday, 4:30pm

Abstract
While quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis has taken us from DNA markers to associations with phenotypes, technology has advanced and we are now able to simultaneously measure the expression of genes in an organism under controlled and specified conditions. Quantitative differences in the expression of genes can be investigated using a functional genomics approach that involves a novel application of QTL analysis. Dissection of regulatory networks using genetic analysis of natural allelic variation will provide an efficient method for searching for regulatory loci at a systems biology level and thus avoids unnatural traumatic perturbations to gene regulation that are caused by extreme mutations. QTL dissection of natural variation is complementary to mutant analysis since it is likely to reveal different aspects of the regulatory network controlling such diseases as resistance. Additionally, the proposed approach is uniquely different from mutant analysis because qualitatively inherited resistance genes do not account for all the aspects of complex pathways.