Recurrent evolution of vertebrate transcription factors by transposase capture.
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ABSTRACT: Genes with novel cellular functions may evolve through exon shuffling, which can assemble novel protein architectures. Here, we show that DNA transposons provide a recurrent supply of materials to assemble protein-coding genes through exon shuffling. We find that transposase domains have been captured-primarily via alternative splicing-to form fusion proteins at least 94 times independently over the course of ~350 million years of tetrapod evolution. We find an excess of transposase DNA binding domains fused to host regulatory domains, especially the Krüppel-associated box (KRAB) domain, and identify four independently evolved KRAB-transposase fusion proteins repressing gene expression in a sequence-specific fashion. The bat-specific KRABINER fusion protein binds its cognate transposons genome-wide and controls a network of genes and cis-regulatory elements. These results illustrate how a transcription factor and its binding sites can emerge.
SUBMITTER: Cosby RL
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8186458 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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