Question

What is an epistasis example?

Answer 1

Epistasis:

1. The type of gene interaction in which one gene masks or suppresses the expression of another gene.
2. The gene which inhibits the expression of another gene is called the epistatic gene.
3. The gene whose expression is inhibited by the epistatic gene is called the hypostatic gene.

Example:

1. Malvidin is a pigment found in the Primula plant that creates blue-colored flowers.
2. The synthesis of malvidin pigment is controlled by gene K, and its production can be suppressed by gene D, which is found at the different locus of chromosomes. So gene K is the hypostatic gene and gene D is epistatic.
3. In this case of dominant epistasis if the D allele is dominant to the K allele, thus the plants with genotype KkDd will not produce malvidin because of the presence of the D allele, as it suppresses the expression of the K gene.