The interplay of additivity, dominance, and epistasis in a diploid yeast cross

We used a double barcoding system to generate and phenotype a panel of ~200,000 diploid yeast segregants that can be partitioned into hundreds of interrelated families. This experimental design enabled the detection of thousands of genetic interactions and many loci whose effects vary across families. Traits were largely specified by a small number of hub loci with major additive and dominance effects, and pervasive epistasis. Genetic background commonly influenced both the additive and dominance effects of loci, with multiple modifiers typically involved. The most prominent dominance modifier was the mating locus, which had no effect on its own. Our findings show that the interplay between additivity, dominance, and epistasis underlies a complex genotype-to-phenotype map in diploids. One sentence summaryIn diploids, epistasis frequently modifies both additivity and dominance.