Ancestral and conserved cis-regulatory architectures in developmental control genes.

ABSTRACT: Among developmental control genes, transcription factor-target gene "linkages"--the direct connections between target genes and the factors that control their patterns of expression--can show remarkable evolutionary stability. However, the specific binding sites that mediate and define these regulatory connections are themselves often subject to rapid turnover. Here we describe several instances in which particular transcription factor binding motif combinations have evidently been conserved upstream of orthologous target genes for extraordinarily long evolutionary periods. This occurs against a backdrop in which other binding sites for the same factors are coming and going rapidly. Our examples include a particular Dpp Silencer Element upstream of insect brinker genes, in combination with

SUBMITTER: Rebeiz M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3265639 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature