Abstract
Copyright: © 2013 McAlear MA. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Ever since Jacob, Monod and their colleagues described how the multiple, tandemly arranged genes of the Lac operon from E. coli are co-regulated in response to different sugar substrates [1], one of the main pursuits of molecular biology has been to dissect the myriads of mechanisms whereby cells control and effect gene regulation. The importance of this question is evident across diverse areas of cellular and organismal biology, from the control of progression through the cell cycle in unicellular organisms, to the processes of development and differentiation in complex metazoans. Indeed, the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was recently awarded, in part, for research aimed at understanding and manipulating the regulatory circuits that can be used to reprogram the gene expression patterns of differentiated adult cells into those of so-called ‘induced’ pluripotent stem cells [2]. If anything, the significance of understanding how organisms ‘use’ their genes appropriately is as important as ever given that advancing, massively parallel DNA sequencing technologies continue to provide an ever-increasing catalog of new and diverse genomes.
Highlights
These predictions have turned out to be fairly accurate, as since some 90% of the unknown members have been subsequently identified as contributing towards ribosome and rRNA biogenesis
Significant gene pairing can be seen across numerous functional pathways in S. cerevisiae including the Gene Ontology (GO) groupings for DNA damage response (16/175 genes), carbohydrate metabolism (9/91 genes), nitrogen metabolism (8/86 genes), heat shock response (4/18 genes) and more
We found that mutations in the conserved PAC and RRPE motifs from within the MPP10
Summary
These predictions have turned out to be fairly accurate, as since some 90% of the unknown members have been subsequently identified as contributing towards ribosome and rRNA biogenesis. This striking enrichment for adjacent pairing of co-regulated genes was not limited to the ribosome biogenesis pathways. It appears that the strategy for positioning transcriptionally co-regulated members of distinct functional pathways as adjacent gene pairs (regardless of relative gene orientations) is widespread across eukaryotes.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
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 callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
