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A polygene is a member of a group of non-epistatic genes that interact additively to influence a phenotypic trait, thus contributing to multiple-gene inheritance (polygenic inheritance, multigenic inheritance, quantitative inheritance [1]), a type of non-Mendelian inheritance, as opposed to single-gene inheritance, which is the core notion of Mendelian inheritance.
A phenotypic trait is an obvious, observable, and measurable characteristic of an organism; it is the expression of genes in an observable way. An example of a phenotypic trait is a specific hair color or eye color. Underlying genes, that make up the genotype, determine the hair color, but the hair color observed is the phenotype.
The irises of human eyes exhibit a wide spectrum of colours. Eye color is a polygenic phenotypic trait determined by two factors: the pigmentation of the eye's iris [1] [2] and the frequency-dependence of the scattering of light by the turbid medium in the stroma of the iris.
Polygenic inheritance refers to inheritance of a phenotypic characteristic (trait) that is attributable to two or more genes and can be measured quantitatively. Multifactorial inheritance refers to polygenic inheritance that also includes interactions with the environment.
A polygenic trait is one whose phenotype is dependent on the additive effects of multiple genes. The contributions of each of these genes are typically small and add up to a final phenotype with a large amount of variation. A well studied example of this is the number of sensory bristles on a fly. [23]
Polygenic adaptation describes a process in which a population adapts through small changes in allele frequencies at hundreds or thousands of loci. [ 1 ] Many traits in humans and other species are highly polygenic , i.e., affected by standing genetic variation at hundreds or thousands of loci.
(Using a Plomin example, [38] for two traits with heritabilities of 0.60 & 0.23, =, and phenotypic correlation of r=0.45 the bivariate heritability would be =, so of the observed phenotypic correlation, 0.28/0.45 = 62% of it is due to correlative genetic effects, which is to say nothing of trait mutability in and of itself.)
Quantitative genetics is the study of quantitative traits, which are phenotypes that vary continuously—such as height or mass—as opposed to phenotypes and gene-products that are discretely identifiable—such as eye-colour, or the presence of a particular biochemical.