Understanding the genetic and environmental factors affecting human complex genetic traits and diseases is a major challenge because of many interacting genes with individually small effects, whose expression is sensitive to the environment. Dissection of complex traits using the powerful genetic approaches available with Drosophila melanogaster has provided important lessons that should be considered when studying human complex traits. In Drosophila, large numbers of pleiotropic genes affect complex traits; quantitative trait locus alleles often have sex-, environment-, and genetic background-specific effects, and variants associated with different phenotypic are in noncoding as well as coding regions of candidate genes. Such insights, in conjunction with the strong evolutionary conservation of key genes and pathways between flies and humans, make Drosophila an excellent model system for elucidating the genetic mechanisms that affect clinically relevant human complex traits, such as alcohol dependence, sleep, and neurodegenerative diseases.

中文翻译：

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果蝇和人：果蝇是人类复杂性状的模型。

了解影响人类复杂遗传特征和疾病的遗传和环境因素是一项重大挑战，因为存在许多相互作用的基因，它们各自的作用很小，其表达对环境敏感。使用果蝇果蝇可用的强大遗传方法对复杂性状进行剖析提供了重要的经验教训，在研究人类复杂性状时应予以考虑。在果蝇中，大量的多效性基因会影响复杂的性状。数量性状基因座等位基因通常具有性别，环境和遗传背景特异性作用，并且与不同表型相关的变异体位于候选基因的非编码区和编码区。这些见识与果蝇和人类之间关键基因和通路的强大进化保守性相结合，