Evolution of repressive sequences within an enhancer contributed to morphological diversity in crucifer plants.

ABSTRACT: Cis-regulatory sequences, such as enhancers, play a crucial role in morphological evolution, but how their diversification leads to evolution of novel expression patterns that underpin diversity is still poorly understood. Recent work suggests that the function of enhancers is influenced by their genomic sequence context more than previously thought, further complicating our understanding of their contribution to diversity. To address these issues, we investigated the regulation of the RCO homeobox gene, which contributed to the evolution of complex leaves following its tandem duplication from LMI1. By characterizing seventeen regulatory alleles at the LMI1/RCO locus that we generated by genome editing, we found that the evolved RCO enhancer is sub

SUBMITTER: Popoli A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12745806 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature