Proposal to Sequence a Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel: A Community Resource for the Study of Genotypic and Phenotypic Variation

Overview: We propose the sequencing of a D. melanogaster genetic reference panel of 192 wild-type lines from a single natural population which have been inbred to homozygosity, and for which extensive information on complex trait phenotypes has been collected. This will create: (1) A community resource for association mapping of quantitative trait loci. Within this project we will demonstrate such mapping and provide candidate quantitative trait polymorphisms for traits relevant to human health. (2) A community resource of common Drosophila sequence polymorphisms (SNPs and indels) with a minor allele frequency (MAF) of 0.02 or greater. These variants will be valuable for high resolution QTL mapping as well as mapping alleles of major effect, molecular population genetic analyses, and allele specific transcription studies, among others. (3) A “test bench” for statistical methods used in QTL association and mapping studies for traits affecting human disease.