biosverra

Hi all

A classical genetics situation:   a heterozygous  recessive allele A doesnt't have a phenotype and a heterozygous recessive allele B has only a very weak  phenotype.  A transhet combination A/B has a very strong phenotype (A het phenotype +B het phenotype< < A/B transhet phenotype <=> non-additive change in the phenotype). I can assume that there is a dominant enhancement of gene A by gene B. But is there a more formal way to estimate the degree of this dominant interaction, e.g. statistical test under assumption of a certain model?

I know that for testing synergistic interaction between drugs people use  Bliss independence model and do a corresponding statistics. However, I cannot use it since in this model they compare the untreated sample and the same sample treated with drug/drugs (separately and in combination) and thus use co-variance in their statistical tests. In my case there are 4 SEPARATE groups of flies (yes, I work with Drosophila!) : control, 2xheterozygous and transheterozugous.

I am not aware of other methods to test the significance of a dominant enhancement effect of two recessive mutations... If someone could recommend me something, I would greatly appreciate!

Ciao,

Vera