Enhancer divergence and cis-regulatory evolution in the human and chimp neural crest.

ABSTRACT: cis-regulatory changes play a central role in morphological divergence, yet the regulatory principles underlying emergence of human traits remain poorly understood. Here, we use epigenomic profiling from human and chimpanzee cranial neural crest cells to systematically and quantitatively annotate divergence of craniofacial cis-regulatory landscapes. Epigenomic divergence is often attributable to genetic variation within TF motifs at orthologous enhancers, with a novel motif being most predictive of activity biases. We explore properties of this cis-regulatory change, revealing the role of particular retroelements, uncovering broad clusters of species-biased enhancers near genes associated with human facial variation, and demonstrating that cis-regulatory divergence is linked to quantitativ

SUBMITTER: Prescott SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4848043 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature