Publications

Highly Combinatorial Genetic Interaction Analysis Reveals a Multi-Drug Transporter Influence Network

Celaj A, Gebbia M, Musa L, Cote AG, Snider J, Wong V, Ko M, Fong T, Bansal P, Mellor JC, Seesankar G, Nguyen M, Zhou S, Wang L, Kishore N, Stagljar I, Suzuki Y, Yachie N, Roth FP

PMID: 31668799

Abstract

Many traits are complex, depending non-additively on variant combinations. Even in model systems, such as the yeast S. cerevisiae, carrying out the high-order variant-combination testing needed to dissect complex traits remains a daunting challenge. Here, we describe "X-gene" genetic analysis (XGA), a strategy for engineering and profiling highly combinatorial gene perturbations. We demonstrate XGA on yeast ABC transporters by engineering 5,353 strains, each deleted for a random subset of 16 transporters, and profiling each strain's resistance to 16 compounds. XGA yielded 85,648 genotype-to-resistance observations, revealing high-order genetic interactions for 13 of the 16 transporters studied. Neural networks yielded intuitive functional models and guided exploration of fluconazole resistance, which was influenced non-additively by five genes. Together, our results showed that highly combinatorial genetic perturbation can functionally dissect complex traits, supporting pursuit of analogous strategies in human cells and other model systems.