Ancient transcriptional regulators can easily evolve new pair-wise cooperativity.

ABSTRACT: Cells regulate gene expression by the specific binding of transcription regulators to cis-regulatory sequences. Pair-wise cooperativity between regulators-whereby two different regulators physically interact and bind DNA in a cooperative manner-is common and permits complex modes of gene regulation. Over evolutionary timescales, the formation of new combinations of regulators represents a major source of phenotypic novelty, facilitating new network structures. How functional, pair-wise cooperative interactions arise between regulators is poorly understood, despite the abundance of examples in extant species. Here, we explore a protein-protein interaction between two ancient transcriptional regulators-the homeodomain protein Matα2 and the MADS box protein Mcm1-that was gained approximately

SUBMITTER: Fowler KR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10334809 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature