What are the limitations of functional complementation?

Functional complementation is a technique that has been widely used to identify candidate genes based on their ability to rescue a phenotype caused by the loss of another gene. However, there are some limitations to functional complementation, such as the possibility of identifying partial or false positive complements. Moreover, the function of the gene may depend on its spatial as well as its temporal context, which may not be fully replicated in the functional complementation experiments. Additionally, some genes may not be amenable to the functional complementation approach if they have multifaceted functions or if their phenotypes are difficult to detect. Therefore, a combination of complementary techniques, such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and transcriptomics, may be necessary to fully understand the roles of the genes in biological processes.

This mind map was published on 8 June 2023 and has been viewed 137 times.