Abstract
Metabolic homeostasis is sustained by complex biological networks that respond to nutrient availability. To define the genetic variants controlling metabolism, we applied a quantitative genetic strategy using a C. elegans reference population consisting of 199 recombinant inbred lines (RILs). We focused on the genetic contributions to control metabolite levels and measured fatty acid (FA) and amino acid (AA) composition in these RILs using targeted metabolomics. For both FA and AA profiles, we observed large metabolite variation between these RILs. We performed metabolite correlation analysis and detected strong co-correlated metabolite clusters. To identify the genetic variants responsible for the observed metabolite variations, we performed QTL mapping and detected 36 significant metabolite QTL (mQTL). We focused on the most significant mQTL for C14:1 on Chromosome I and narrowed down this mQTL to a 1.4Mbp region. Overall, this systems approach provides us with a powerful platform to study the genetic basis of metabolism.