大規(guī)模全基因組關(guān)聯(lián)研究（GWAS）已成為人類基因組學(xué)中的一個(gè)重要工具，其關(guān)注焦點(diǎn)大多是疾病,，但也關(guān)注膚色等適應(yīng)性變異?，F(xiàn)在，這種方法被發(fā)現(xiàn)在植物中也同樣有用,。Atwell等人報(bào)告了對自然出現(xiàn)的近交系擬南芥中的超過100種基因型所做的一項(xiàng)GWA研究,。他們獲得的結(jié)果從“有顯著關(guān)聯(lián)”（通常是對單個(gè)基因）到“比較難以解讀的發(fā)現(xiàn)”都有,，這說明復(fù)雜遺傳因素和種群結(jié)構(gòu)交互影響。
由Todesco等人發(fā)表的另一篇相伴的論文顯示了這種方法檢測“主要影響”基因位點(diǎn)的能力,。利用正向遺傳學(xué)和GWA分析,，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，擬南芥單一位點(diǎn)（ACD6）上的變異是造成植物生長及抗感染能力方面的表現(xiàn)型變異的原因,。由這個(gè)位點(diǎn)上的等位基因之一所調(diào)控的抵抗力的顯著增強(qiáng),，可以解釋它為什么能在全世界的自然種群中持久存在，盡管這會(huì)大大減少新葉的生成,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
高燒的GWAS——生物谷盤點(diǎn)2009
牛人在我身邊（1）
Nucleic Acids Res.：基于通路的GWAS數(shù)據(jù)網(wǎng)絡(luò)分析平臺(tái)開發(fā)成功
生物谷推薦原文出處：
Nature doi:10.1038/nature08800
Genome-wide association study of 107 phenotypes in Arabidopsis thaliana inbred lines
Susanna Atwell,Yu S. Huang,Bjarni J. Vilhjálmsson,Glenda Willems,Matthew Horton,Yan Li,Dazhe Meng,Alexander Platt,Aaron M. Tarone,Tina T. Hu,Rong Jiang,N. Wayan Muliyati,Xu Zhang,Muhammad Ali Amer,Ivan Baxter,Benjamin Brachi,Joanne Chory,Caroline Dean,Marilyne Debieu,Juliette de Meaux,Joseph R. Ecker,Nathalie Faure,Joel M. Kniskern,Jonathan D. G. Jones,Todd Michael,et al
Although pioneered by human geneticists as a potential solution to the challenging problem of finding the genetic basis of common human diseases1, 2, genome-wide association (GWA) studies have, owing to advances in genotyping and sequencing technology, become an obvious general approach for studying the genetics of natural variation and traits of agricultural importance. They are particularly useful when inbred lines are available, because once these lines have been genotyped they can be phenotyped multiple times, making it possible (as well as extremely cost effective) to study many different traits in many different environments, while replicating the phenotypic measurements to reduce environmental noise. Here we demonstrate the power of this approach by carrying out a GWA study of 107 phenotypes in Arabidopsis thaliana, a widely distributed, predominantly self-fertilizing model plant known to harbour considerable genetic variation for many adaptively important traits3. Our results are dramatically different from those of human GWA studies, in that we identify many common alleles of major effect, but they are also, in many cases, harder to interpret because confounding by complex genetics and population structure make it difficult to distinguish true associations from false. However, a-priori candidates are significantly over-represented among these associations as well, making many of them excellent candidates for follow-up experiments. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of GWA studies in A.thaliana and suggests that the approach will be appropriate for many other organisms.
