Composition and dosage of a multipartite enhancer cluster control developmental expression of Ihh (Indian hedgehog).

ABSTRACT: Copy number variations (CNVs) often include noncoding sequences and putative enhancers, but how these rearrangements induce disease is poorly understood. Here we investigate CNVs involving the regulatory landscape of IHH (encoding Indian hedgehog), which cause multiple, highly localized phenotypes including craniosynostosis and synpolydactyly. We show through transgenic reporter and genome-editing studies in mice that Ihh is regulated by a constellation of at least nine enhancers with individual tissue specificities in the digit anlagen, growth plates, skull sutures and fingertips. Consecutive deletions, resulting in growth defects of the skull and long bones, showed that these enhancers function in an additive manner. Duplications, in contrast, caused not only dose-dependent upregulation

SUBMITTER: Will AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5617800 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature