Landscape of histone modifications in a sponge reveals the origin of animal cis-regulatory complexity.

ABSTRACT: Combinatorial patterns of histone modifications regulate developmental and cell type-specific gene expression and underpin animal complexity, but it is unclear when this regulatory system evolved. By analysing histone modifications in a morphologically-simple, early branching animal, the sponge Amphimedonqueenslandica, we show that the regulatory landscape used by complex bilaterians was already in place at the dawn of animal multicellularity. This includes distal enhancers, repressive chromatin and transcriptional units marked by H3K4me3 that vary with levels of developmental regulation. Strikingly, Amphimedon enhancers are enriched in metazoan-specific microsyntenic units, suggesting that their genomic location is extremely ancient and likely to place constraints on

SUBMITTER: Gaiti F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5429095 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature