Consequences of eukaryotic enhancer architecture for gene expression dynamics, development, and fitness.

ABSTRACT: The regulatory logic of time- and tissue-specific gene expression has mostly been dissected in the context of the smallest DNA fragments that, when isolated, recapitulate native expression in reporter assays. It is not known if the genomic sequences surrounding such fragments, often evolutionarily conserved, have any biological function or not. Using an enhancer of the even-skipped gene of Drosophila as a model, we investigate the functional significance of the genomic sequences surrounding empirically identified enhancers. A 480 bp long "minimal stripe element" is able to drive even-skipped expression in the second of seven stripes but is embedded in a larger region of 800 bp containing evolutionarily conserved binding sites for required transcription factors. To assess the overall fitnes

SUBMITTER: Ludwig MZ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3213169 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature