Whereas genetic studies have traditionally focused on explaining heritance of single traits and their phenotypes, recent technological advances have made it possible to comprehensively dissect the genetic architecture of complex traits and quantify how genes interact to shape phenotypes. This exciting new area has been termed systems genetics and is born out of a synthesis of multiple fields, integrating a range of approaches and exploiting our increased ability to obtain quantitative and detailed measurements on a broad spectrum of phenotypes. Gathering the contributions of leading scientists, both computational and experimental, this book shows how experimental perturbations can help us to understand the link between genotype and phenotype. A snapshot of current research activity and state-of-the-art approaches to systems genetics are provided, including work from model organisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Drosophila melanogaster, as well as from human studies.

Focuses on how gene perturbation can contribute to a systems understanding of cells and disease mechanisms, presenting state-of-the-art research shedding new light on the link between genotype and phenotype
Examines how to leverage gene perturbation screens to the identification of molecular interactions, cellular pathways and regulatory mechanisms
Bridges research communities on basic biology and medical research, suggesting that results on perturbation screens can reveal unexploited areas of potential therapeutic intervention

List of contributors
1. An introduction to systems genetics Florian Markowetz and Michael Boutros
2. Computational paradigms for analyzing genetic interaction networks Carles Pons, Michael Costanzo, Charles Boone and Chad L. Myers
3. Mapping genetic interactions across many phenotypes in metazoan cells Christina Laufer, Maximilian Billmann and Michael Boutros
4. Genetic interactions and network reliability Edgar Delgado-Eckert and Niko Beerenwinkel
5. Synthetic lethality and chemoresistance in cancer Kimberly Maxfield and Angelique Whitehurst
6. Joining the dots – network analysis of gene perturbation data Xin Wang, Ke Yuan and Florian Markowetz
7. High content screening in infectious diseases: new drugs against bugs André P. Mäurer, Peter R. Braun, Kate Holden-Dye and Thomas F. Meyer
8. Inferring genetic architecture from systems genetics studies Xiaoyun Sun, Stephanie Mohr, Arunachalam Vinayagam, Pengyu Hong and Norbert Perrimon
9. Bayesian inference for model selection: an application to aberrant signalling pathways in chronic myeloid leukaemia Lisa E. M. Hopcroft, Ben Calderhead, Paolo Gallipoli, Tessa L. Holyoake and Mark A. Girolami
10. Dynamic network models of protein complexes Yongjin Park and Joel S. Bader
11. Phenotype state spaces and strategies for exploring them Andreas Hadjiprocopis and Rune Linding
12. Automated behavioural fingerprinting of C. elegans mutants André E. X. Brown and William R. Schafer
Index.