Side Effects: Substantial Non-Neutral Evolution Flanking Regulatory Sites

James G D Prendergast,Colin A Semple,Gregory S Barsh

doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1003528

Abstract

Side Effects: Substantial Non-Neutral Evolution Flanking Regulatory Sites

Highlights

In the pre-genome era, most of what we knew about molecular evolution could be traced to our knowledge of the genetic code, and the impact of DNA sequence variation on protein structure and, by inference, protein function [1]
Recent data from the ENCODE Consortium has suggested that perhaps 80% of the human genome is functional, in the sense that it is subject to a biochemical modification in at least one cell type [7]
Rather than examining DNA sequence conservation at the sites of a particular chromatin state, they have investigated the characteristics of conserved noncoding elements (CNEs) in the Drosophila genome, within their genomic and chromatin context

Summary

Introduction

In the pre-genome era, most of what we knew about molecular evolution could be traced to our knowledge of the genetic code, and the impact of DNA sequence variation on protein structure and, by inference, protein function [1]. The binding of a range of proteins to eukaryotic genomes has been shown to be linked to variation in the underlying DNA sequence.

Results

Conclusion