The regulatory architecture of gene expression variation in Caenorhabditis elegans revealed by multi-strain allele-specific analysis.

ABSTRACT: An outstanding question in the evolution of gene expression is the composition of the underlying regulatory architecture and the processes that shape it. Mutations affecting a gene's expression may reside locally in cis or distally in trans; the accumulation of these changes, their interactions, and their modes of inheritance influence how traits are expressed and how they evolve. Here, we interrogated gene expression variation in Caenorhabditis elegans, including the first allele-specific expression analysis in this system, capturing effects in cis and in trans that govern gene expression differences between the reference strain N2 and 7 wild strains. We observed extensive compensatory regulation, in which opposite effects in cis and trans at individual genes mitigate expression differenc

SUBMITTER: Bell AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12529284 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature