Genetical genomics: the added value from segregation

The recent successes of genome-wide expression profiling in biology tend to overlook the power of genetics. We here propose a merger of genomics and genetics into ‘genetical genomics’. This involves expression profiling and marker-based fingerprinting of each individual of a segregating population, and exploits all the statistical tools used in the analysis of quantitative trait loci. Genetical genomics will combine the power of two different worlds in a way that is likely to become instrumental in the further unravelling of metabolic, regulatory and developmental pathways.