Genetics has recently benefited from the genome engineering revolution: genes can be knocked out, knocked down, or activated more easily than ever before. This range of genetic manipulations has also provided a range of outcomes, sometimes contradictory. But how much interesting biology hides within these discrepancies? Recent studies have shown that genetic compensation can be activated by some gene perturbations and not others, hinting that this phenomenon might skew our understanding of the genotype–phenotype relationship. We review the main findings regarding transcriptional adaptation, a newly discovered form of genetic compensation, and discuss their possible implications for establishing and analyzing animal and plant models to study gene function. We also touch upon how this new knowledge could benefit our understanding of disease-causing mutations and help explain cases of low penetrance or variable expressivity in human genetics.

遗传学最近从基因组工程革命中受益：基因可以比以往任何时候都更容易被敲除、敲除或激活。这一系列的基因操作也提供了一系列的结果，有时是矛盾的。但是在这些差异中隐藏了多少有趣的生物学呢？最近的研究表明，遗传补偿可以通过某些基因扰动而不是其他扰动来激活，这暗示这种现象可能会歪曲我们对基因型 - 表型关系的理解。我们回顾了有关转录适应（一种新发现的遗传补偿形式）的主要发现，并讨论了它们对建立和分析动物和植物模型以研究基因功能的可能影响。