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Characterization of genomic regulatory domains conserved across the genus Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: In both vertebrates and insects, the conservation of local gene order among distantly related species (microsynteny) is higher than expected in the presence of highly conserved noncoding elements (HCNEs). Dense clusters of HCNEs, or HCNE peaks, have been proposed to mediate the regulation of sometimes distantly located genes, which are central for the developmental program of the organism. Thus, the regions encompassing HCNE peaks and their targets in different species would form genomic regulatory domains (GRDs), which should presumably enjoy an enhanced stability over evolutionary time. By leveraging genome rearrangement information from nine Drosophila species and using gene functional and phenotypic information, we performed a comprehensive characterization of the organization of microsynteny blocks harboring HCNE peaks and provide a functional portrait of the putative HCNE targets that reside therein. We found that Drosophila HCNE peaks tend to colocalize more often than expected and to be evenly distributed across chromosomal elements. Putative HCNE peak targets are characterized by a tight association with particular promoter motifs, higher incidence of severe mutant phenotypes, and evidence of a more precise regulation of gene expression during important developmental transitions. As for their physical organization, ~65% of these putative targets are separated by a median of two genes from their nearest HCNE peaks. These observations represent the first functional portrait of this euchromatic fraction of the Drosophila genome with distinctive evolutionary dynamics, which will facilitate future experimental studies on the interactions between HCNE peaks and their targets in a genetically tractable system such as Drosophila melanogaster.

SUBMITTER: Sahagun V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3490413 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Characterization of genomic regulatory domains conserved across the genus Drosophila.

Sahagun Virginia V Ranz José M JM

Genome biology and evolution 20120101 10

In both vertebrates and insects, the conservation of local gene order among distantly related species (microsynteny) is higher than expected in the presence of highly conserved noncoding elements (HCNEs). Dense clusters of HCNEs, or HCNE peaks, have been proposed to mediate the regulation of sometimes distantly located genes, which are central for the developmental program of the organism. Thus, the regions encompassing HCNE peaks and their targets in different species would form genomic regulat ...[more]

PMID: 23042552

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Project description:Next-generation sequencing technologies promise to dramatically accelerate the use of genetic information for crop improvement by facilitating the genetic mapping of agriculturally important phenotypes. The first step in optimizing the design of genetic mapping studies involves large-scale polymorphism discovery and a subsequent genome-wide assessment of the population structure and pattern of linkage disequilibrium (LD) in the species of interest. In the present study, we provide such an assessment for the grapevine (genus Vitis), the world's most economically important fruit crop. Reduced representation libraries (RRLs) from 17 grape DNA samples (10 cultivated V. vinifera and 7 wild Vitis species) were sequenced with sequencing-by-synthesis technology. We developed heuristic approaches for SNP calling, identified hundreds of thousands of SNPs and validated a subset of these SNPs on a 9K genotyping array. We demonstrate that the 9K SNP array provides sufficient resolution to distinguish among V. vinifera cultivars, between V. vinifera and wild Vitis species, and even among diverse wild Vitis species. We show that there is substantial sharing of polymorphism between V. vinifera and wild Vitis species and find that genetic relationships among V. vinifera cultivars agree well with their proposed geographic origins using principal components analysis (PCA). Levels of LD in the domesticated grapevine are low even at short ranges, but LD persists above background levels to 3 kb. While genotyping arrays are useful for assessing population structure and the decay of LD across large numbers of samples, we suggest that whole-genome sequencing will become the genotyping method of choice for genome-wide genetic mapping studies in high-diversity plant species. This study demonstrates that we can move quickly towards genome-wide studies of crop species using next-generation sequencing. Our study sets the stage for future work in other high diversity crop species, and provides a significant enhancement to current genetic resources available to the grapevine genetic community.

Dataset Information

Characterization of genomic regulatory domains conserved across the genus Drosophila.

Publications

Characterization of genomic regulatory domains conserved across the genus Drosophila.

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