Functional characterization of adaptive variation within a cis-regulatory element influencing Drosophila melanogaster growth.

ABSTRACT: Gene expression variation is a major contributor to phenotypic diversity within species and is thought to play an important role in adaptation. However, examples of adaptive regulatory polymorphism are rare, especially those that have been characterized at both the molecular genetic level and the organismal level. In this study, we perform a functional analysis of the Drosophila melanogaster CG9509 enhancer, a cis-regulatory element that shows evidence of adaptive evolution in populations outside the species' ancestral range in sub-Saharan Africa. Using site-directed mutagenesis and transgenic reporter gene assays, we determined that 3 single nucleotide polymorphisms are responsible for the difference in CG9509 expression that is observed between sub-Saharan African and cosmopolitan popula

SUBMITTER: Glaser-Schmitt A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5783415 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature