Suboptimal Intermediates Underlie Evolution of the Bicoid Homeodomain.

ABSTRACT: Changes in regulatory networks generate materials for evolution to create phenotypic diversity. For transcription networks, multiple studies have shown that alterations in binding sites of cis-regulatory elements correlate well with the gain or loss of specific features of the body plan. Less is known about alterations in the amino acid sequences of the transcription factors (TFs) that bind these elements. Here we study the evolution of Bicoid (Bcd), a homeodomain (HD) protein that is critical for anterior embryo patterning in Drosophila. The ancestor of Bcd (AncBcd) emerged after a duplication of a Zerknullt (Zen)-like ancestral protein (AncZB) in a suborder of flies. AncBcd diverged from AncZB, gaining novel transcriptional and translational activities. We focus on the evolution of the H

SUBMITTER: Onal P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8136501 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature