Project description:To better characterize how variation in regulatory sequences drives divergence in gene expression, we undertook a systematic study of transcription factor binding and gene expression in blastoderm embryos of four species, which sample much of the diversity in the 40 million-year old genus Drosophila: D. melanogaster, D. yakuba, D. pseudoobscura and D. virilis. We compared gene expression, measured by mRNA-seq, to the genome-wide binding, measured by ChIP-seq, of four transcription factors involved in early anterior-posterior patterning. We found that mRNA levels are much better conserved than individual transcription factor binding events, and that changes in a gene’s expression were poorly explained by changes in adjacent transcription factor binding. However highly bound sites, sites in regions bound by multiple factors and sites near genes are conserved more frequently than other binding, suggesting that a considerable amount of transcription factor binding is weakly or non-functional and not subject to purifying selection
Project description:We sequenced mRNA from blastoderm embryos of Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila yakuba, Drosophila pseudoobscura and Drosophila virilis. Two samples contain pooled mRNA from several species, and the remaining 24 samples contain mRNA from a single species. Methods: Retinal mRNA profiles of Blastoderm embryos
Project description:We sequenced mRNA from blastoderm embryos of Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila yakuba, Drosophila pseudoobscura and Drosophila virilis. Two samples contain pooled mRNA from several species, and the remaining 24 samples contain mRNA from a single species. Methods: Retinal mRNA profiles of Blastoderm embryos Comparison of the evolution of gene expression and regulatory TF binding in early Drosophila embryos.