Why are some plants taller? Researchers on the unveiling of genetic variation associated with complex quantitative phenotypes.

Francisco Pereira Lobo, Giovanni Marques de Castro, and Felipe Campelo are part of an international team of collaborators that developed CALANGO, a comparative genomics tool to investigate quantitative genotype-phenotype relationships. Their article highlights how the tool integrates species-centric data to perform genome-wide search and detect genes potentially involved in the emergence of complex quantitative traits across species. Here, they talk about their view of data science, their experience with interdisciplinary research, and the potential applications of their tool.