Non-additive interactions between mutations occur extensively and also change across conditions, making genetic prediction a difficult challenge. To better understand the plasticity of genetic interactions (epistasis), we combine mutations in a single protein performing a single function (a transcriptional repressor inhibiting a target gene). Even in this minimal system, genetic interactions switch from positive (suppressive) to negative (enhancing) as the expression of the gene changes. These seemingly complicated changes can be predicted using a mathematical model that propagates the effects of mutations on protein folding to the cellular phenotype. More generally, changes in gene expression should be expected to alter the effects of mutations and how they interact whenever the relationship between expression and a phenotype is nonlinear, which is the case for most genes. These results have important implications for understanding genotype-phenotype maps and illustrate how changes in genetic interactions can often-but not always-be predicted by hierarchical mechanistic models.

This work was supported by a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator grant (616434), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (BFU2017-89488-P and SEV-2012-0208), the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, Agencia de Gestio d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR, 2017 SGR 1322.), and the CERCA Program/Generalitat de Catalunya. X. Li was supported in part by a fellowship from the Ramón Areces Foundation. We also acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MEIC) to the EMBL partnership and the Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa.