Proper development depends on establishing precise gene expression patterns in spite of the inherent noise in transcription, shadow enhancers buffer this noise by binding distinct input transcription factors.
Jacques P Bothma, Hernan G Garcia ... Michael Levine
Quantitative live imaging assays reveal that multiple enhancers often fail to work in an additive fashion in the patterning of the Drosophila embryo, and sometimes even interfere with one another.
Claudia Racioppi, Keira A Wiechecki, Lionel Christiaen
ATAC-seq, CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis, reporter and gene expression assays revealed dynamic chromatin accessibility profiles governing differential gene expression during heart vs. pharyngeal muscle fate choices in the powerful chordate model Ciona.
Tucked within a well-known story of diverging gene function is a single enhancer encoding two inseparable specificities that regulates two adjacent genes, each with different spatiotemporal expression patterns.
Joshua F Coulcher, Agnès Roure ... Sébastien Darras
Developmental regulatory mechanisms for peripheral nervous system formation appear to be conserved in ascidians despite extensive genomic divergence after 390 MY of separate evolution.
Rupinder Sayal, Jacqueline M Dresch ... David N Arnosti
Mathematical modeling of mutagenesis data for a suite of enhancers uncovers new relationships between the binding sites of transcription factors that help in genome-wide prediction of enhancers.
Over 2.8 million tissue-specific gene regulatory sequences are predicted for 33 insect genomes, using a simple computational workflow with only the genome sequence and a basic gene annotation as input.
Jaw joint regulatory sequence 1 (JRS1) is deeply conserved in most jawed vertebrates and displays a specific enhancer activity in the developing primary jaw joint that contributes to early nkx3.2 gene expression and jaw joint morphology.
The sharp expression pattern driven by a classic, simple animal enhancer is determined by multiple molecular mechanisms, not only cooperative binding of the activating transcription factor as was previously thought.
Multiple enhancers in physical proximity can reinforce shared transcriptional 'hubs' to preserve their transcriptional output, providing a buffer during environmental stresses and genetic perturbations to preserve phenotypic robustness.
