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Gene clustering pattern, promoter architecture, and gene expression stability in eukaryotic genomes.

ABSTRACT: A balance between gene expression stability and evolvability is essential for the long-term maintenance of a living system. In this paper, we studied whether the genetic and epigenetic properties of the promoter affect gene expression variability. We hypothesized that upstream distance and orientation (head-to-head or head-to-tail) are important for the promoter architecture and gene expression variability. We found that in budding yeast genes with a short upstream distance tend to have low gene expression variability, and their promoter is flanked by strongly positioned nucleosomes and tends to have low nucleosome occupancy. These observations suggest that in vivo positioning of the flanking nucleosomes facilitates stable nucleosome depletion at the core promoter region and enhances gene expression stability. Head-to-head genes have, on average, lower gene expression variability, greater nucleosome depletion at the core promoter region, and more strongly positioned nucleosomes that flank the core promoter than do head-to-tail genes. These observations hold for diverse eukaryotes. In complex organisms such as mammals, only a small fraction of head-to-tail genes have retained a short upstream distance, probably because the promoter may not be flanked by a strongly positioned nucleosome on the upstream side.

SUBMITTER: Woo YH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3044413 | biostudies-other | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Gene clustering pattern, promoter architecture, and gene expression stability in eukaryotic genomes.

Woo Yong H YH Li Wen-Hsiung WH Li Wen-Hsiung WH

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20110207 8

A balance between gene expression stability and evolvability is essential for the long-term maintenance of a living system. In this paper, we studied whether the genetic and epigenetic properties of the promoter affect gene expression variability. We hypothesized that upstream distance and orientation (head-to-head or head-to-tail) are important for the promoter architecture and gene expression variability. We found that in budding yeast genes with a short upstream distance tend to have low gene ...[more]

PMID: 21300882

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Project description:The regulatory logic of time- and tissue-specific gene expression has mostly been dissected in the context of the smallest DNA fragments that, when isolated, recapitulate native expression in reporter assays. It is not known if the genomic sequences surrounding such fragments, often evolutionarily conserved, have any biological function or not. Using an enhancer of the even-skipped gene of Drosophila as a model, we investigate the functional significance of the genomic sequences surrounding empirically identified enhancers. A 480 bp long "minimal stripe element" is able to drive even-skipped expression in the second of seven stripes but is embedded in a larger region of 800 bp containing evolutionarily conserved binding sites for required transcription factors. To assess the overall fitness contribution made by these binding sites in the native genomic context, we employed a gene-replacement strategy in which whole-locus transgenes, capable of rescuing even-skipped(-) lethality to adulthood, were substituted for the native gene. The molecular phenotypes were characterized by tagging Even-skipped with a fluorescent protein and monitoring gene expression dynamics in living embryos. We used recombineering to excise the sequences surrounding the minimal enhancer and site-specific transgenesis to create co-isogenic strains differing only in their stripe 2 sequences. Remarkably, the flanking sequences were dispensable for viability, proving the sufficiency of the minimal element for biological function under normal conditions. These sequences are required for robustness to genetic and environmental perturbation instead. The mutant enhancers had measurable sex- and dose-dependent effects on viability. At the molecular level, the mutants showed a destabilization of stripe placement and improper activation of downstream genes. Finally, we demonstrate through live measurements that the peripheral sequences are required for temperature compensation. These results imply that seemingly redundant regulatory sequences beyond the minimal enhancer are necessary for robust gene expression and that "robustness" itself must be an evolved characteristic of the wild-type enhancer.

Dataset Information

Gene clustering pattern, promoter architecture, and gene expression stability in eukaryotic genomes.

Publications

Gene clustering pattern, promoter architecture, and gene expression stability in eukaryotic genomes.

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