G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics Early Online, published on October 6, 2020 as doi:10.1534/g3.120.401824 1 1 2 3 4 A novel mapping strategy utilizing mouse chromosome substitution strains identifies multiple 5 epistatic interactions that regulate complex traits 6 7 8 Anna K. Miller*, Anlu Chen†1, Jacquelaine Bartlett‡, Li Wang*, Scott M. Williams*‡§ and David 9 A. Buchner*†§ 10 11 12 *Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences, Case Western Reserve University School of 13 Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106 14 15 †Department of Biochemistry, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, 16 OH 44106 17 18 ‡Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, Case Western Reserve University 19 School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106 20 21 § These authors contributed equally 22 23 1Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 24 and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115 25 © The Author(s) 2020. Published by the Genetics Society of America. 2 26 Running title: Epistasis in complex traits 27 28 Key words: QTL, complex trait, missing heritability, genetic architecture, epistasis 29 30 Corresponding author's contact information: 31 32 David A. Buchner, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, 10900 Euclid 33 Ave., Cleveland, OH, 44106-4935, 216-368-1816,
[email protected] 3 34 Abstract 35 The genetic contribution of additive versus non-additive (epistatic) effects in the regulation of 36 complex traits is unclear. While genome-wide association studies typically ignore gene-gene 37 interactions, in part because of the lack of statistical power for detecting them, mouse 38 chromosome substitution strains (CSSs) represent an alternate approach for detecting epistasis 39 given their limited allelic variation.