Abstract
Analysis of the evolutionary dynamics of target gene batteries controlled by 16 different transcription factors reveals stable ancestral cores and highly dynamic regulatory sequences
Highlights
Changes in gene regulation are suspected to comprise one of the driving forces for evolution
Using Trawler [11], we de novo identified over-represented motifs corresponding to the transcription factor (TF) binding motif in the species in which the chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) was done
Additional over-represented motifs were considered if they matched known TF binding motifs
Summary
We found that gene batteries show variable conservation within vertebrates, with slow and fast evolving modules. Within the genes composing a given gene battery, we could identify a conserved core that likely reflects the ancestral function of the corresponding transcription factor. We show that the association between a transcription factor and its target genes is conserved even when we exclude conserved sequence similarities of their promoter regions from our analysis. This supports the idea that turnover, either of the transcription factor binding site or its direct neighboring sequence, is a pervasive feature of proximal regulatory sequences
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
