Retrotransposons spread potential cis-regulatory elements during mammary gland evolution.

ABSTRACT: Acquisition of cis-elements is a major driving force for rewiring a gene regulatory network. Several kinds of transposable elements (TEs), mostly retrotransposons that propagate via a copy-and-paste mechanism, are known to possess transcription factor binding motifs and have provided source sequences for enhancers/promoters. However, it remains largely unknown whether retrotransposons have spread the binding sites of master regulators of morphogenesis and accelerated cis-regulatory expansion involved in common mammalian morphological features during evolution. Here, I demonstrate that thousands of binding sites for estrogen receptor α (ERα) and three related pioneer factors (FoxA1, GATA3 and AP2γ) that are essential regulators of mammary gland development arose from a spreading of the bind

SUBMITTER: Nishihara H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7145552 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature