Ancient Genomic Regulatory Blocks Are a Source for Regulatory Gene Deserts in Vertebrates after Whole-Genome Duplications.

ABSTRACT: We investigated how the two rounds of whole-genome duplication that occurred at the base of the vertebrate lineage have impacted ancient microsyntenic associations involving developmental regulators (known as genomic regulatory blocks, GRBs). We showed that the majority of GRBs identified in the last common ancestor of chordates have been maintained as a single copy in humans. We found evidence that dismantling of the duplicated GRB copies occurred early in vertebrate evolution often through the differential retention of the regulatory gene but loss of the bystander gene's exonic sequences. Despite the large evolutionary scale, the presence of duplicated highly conserved noncoding regions provided unambiguous proof for this scenario for multiple ancient GRBs. Remarkably, the dismantling of

SUBMITTER: Touceda-Suarez M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7530604 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature