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Dynamic evolution of precise regulatory encodings creates the clustered site signature of enhancers
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Dynamic evolution of precise regulatory encodings creates the clustered site signature of enhancers

Justin Crocker, Nathan Potter and Albert Erives
Nature communications, Vol.1(7), pp.99-99
10/19/2010
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1102
PMCID: PMC2963808
PMID: 20981027
url
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1102View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Concentration gradients of morphogenic proteins pattern the embryonic axes of Drosophila by activating different genes at different concentrations. The neurogenic ectoderm enhancers (NEEs) activate different genes at different threshold levels of the Dorsal (Dl) morphogen, which patterns the dorsal/ventral axis. NEEs share a unique arrangement of highly constrained DNA-binding sites for Dl, Twist (Twi), Snail (Sna) and Suppressor of Hairless (Su(H)), and encode the threshold variable in the precise length of DNA that separates one well-defined Dl element from a Twi element. However, NEEs also possess dense clusters of variant Dl sites. Here, we show that these increasingly variant sites are eclipsed relic elements, which were superseded by more recently evolved threshold encodings. Given the divergence in egg size during Drosophila lineage evolution, the observed characteristic clusters of divergent sites indicate a history of frequent selection for changes in threshold responses to the Dl morphogen gradient and confirm the NEE structure/function model.
Repressor Proteins - genetics Nuclear Proteins - metabolism Phosphoproteins - genetics Phylogeny Transcription Factors - genetics Drosophila Proteins - metabolism Phosphoproteins - metabolism Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid - genetics Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid - physiology Biological Evolution Transcription Factors - metabolism Animals Twist-Related Protein 1 - genetics Drosophila - metabolism Drosophila Proteins - genetics Nuclear Proteins - genetics Twist-Related Protein 1 - metabolism Snail Family Transcription Factors Repressor Proteins - metabolism Drosophila - genetics

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