PUBLICATION

Cooperation, cis-interactions, versatility and evolutionary plasticity of multiple cis-acting elements underlie krox20 hindbrain regulation

Authors
Torbey, P., Thierion, E., Collombet, S., de Cian, A., Desmarquet-Trin-Dinh, C., Dura, M., Concordet, J.P., Charnay, P., Gilardi-Hebenstreit, P.
ID
ZDB-PUB-180807-7
Date
2018
Source
PLoS Genetics   14: e1007581 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Charnay, Patrick, Gilardi-Hebenstreit, Pascale
Keywords
none
Datasets
GEO:GSE113471
MeSH Terms
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • CRISPR-Cas Systems
  • Chromatin/metabolism
  • Early Growth Response Protein 2/genetics*
  • Early Growth Response Protein 2/physiology
  • Enhancer Elements, Genetic
  • Evolution, Molecular
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental*
  • Genetic Loci
  • Morphogenesis/genetics
  • Rhombencephalon/metabolism*
  • Transcriptional Activation
  • Zebrafish/embryology
  • Zebrafish/genetics*
  • Zebrafish Proteins/genetics*
PubMed
30080860 Full text @ PLoS Genet.
Abstract
Cis-regulation plays an essential role in the control of gene expression, and is particularly complex and poorly understood for developmental genes, which are subject to multiple levels of modulation. In this study, we performed a global analysis of the cis-acting elements involved in the control of the zebrafish developmental gene krox20. krox20 encodes a transcription factor required for hindbrain segmentation and patterning, a morphogenetic process highly conserved during vertebrate evolution. Chromatin accessibility analysis reveals a cis-regulatory landscape that includes 6 elements participating in the control of initiation and autoregulatory aspects of krox20 hindbrain expression. Combining transgenic reporter analyses and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutagenesis, we assign precise functions to each of these 6 elements and provide a comprehensive view of krox20 cis-regulation. Three important features emerged. First, cooperation between multiple cis-elements plays a major role in the regulation. Cooperation can surprisingly combine synergy and redundancy, and is not restricted to transcriptional enhancer activity (for example, 4 distinct elements cooperate through different modes to maintain autoregulation). Second, several elements are unexpectedly versatile, which allows them to be involved in different aspects of control of gene expression. Third, comparative analysis of the elements and their activities in several vertebrate species reveals that this versatility is underlain by major plasticity across evolution, despite the high conservation of the gene expression pattern. These characteristics are likely to be of broad significance for developmental genes.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping