Dataset Information

REforge associates transcription factor binding site divergence in regulatory elements with phenotypic differences between species.

ABSTRACT: Elucidating the genomic determinants of morphological differences between species is key to understanding how morphological diversity evolved. While differences in cis-regulatory elements are an important genetic source for morphological evolution, it remains challenging to identify regulatory elements involved in phenotypic differences. Here, we present Regulatory Element forward genomics (REforge), a computational approach that detects associations between transcription factor binding site divergence in putative regulatory elements and phenotypic differences between species. By simulating regulatory element evolution in silico, we show that this approach has substantial power to detect such associations. To validate REforge on real data, we used known binding motifs for eye-related transcription factors and identified significant binding site divergence in vision-impaired subterranean mammals in 1% of all conserved non-coding elements. We show that these genomic regions are significantly enriched in regulatory elements that are specifically active in mouse eye tissues, and that several of them are located near genes, which are required for eye development and photoreceptor function and are implicated in human eye disorders. Thus, our genome-wide screen detects widespread divergence of eye-regulatory elements and highlights regulatory regions that likely contributed to eye degeneration in subterranean mammals. REforge has broad applicability to detect regulatory elements that could be involved in many other phenotypes, which will help to reveal the genomic basis of morphological diversity.

SUBMITTER: Langer BE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6278867 | biostudies-other | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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REforge Associates Transcription Factor Binding Site Divergence in Regulatory Elements with Phenotypic Differences between Species.

Langer Björn E BE Roscito Juliana G JG Hiller Michael M

Molecular biology and evolution 20181201 12

Elucidating the genomic determinants of morphological differences between species is key to understanding how morphological diversity evolved. While differences in cis-regulatory elements are an important genetic source for morphological evolution, it remains challenging to identify regulatory elements involved in phenotypic differences. Here, we present Regulatory Element forward genomics (REforge), a computational approach that detects associations between transcription factor binding site div ...[more]

PMID: 30256993

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Project description:A fundamental problem in biology is the molecular basis for divergence among related organisms. We have investigated the level of divergence of transcription factor binding sites for two key factors that regulate developmental processes in the budding yeasts. The genomic binding locations for the Ste12 and Tec1 transcription factors in S. cerevisiae, S. mikatae and S. bayanus were mapped by chromatin immunoprecipitation combined with microarrays (chIP chip)1, 2 and compared to one another. While there was a large core network which was conserved in all three species, there were many instances of binding events whose relative levels differ significantly quantitatively in one species relative to another and as well as species-specific binding events. One interesting class of genes were identified that were bound only in S. mikatae and S. bayanus; many of these genes are targets of Ste12 in haploid strains of S. cerevisiae, suggesting that S. cerevisiae has uniquely acquired the ability to differentially regulate these genes in haploid and diploid cells in these species. To extend these studies, the transcriptional network for the Ste12 homologue (Cph1) in Candida albicans was also mapped and compared to the Saccharomyces species. Again, there were several genes bound by Cph1 which are involved in mating in S. cerevisiae, suggesting that the precise delineation between many mating and pseudohyphal targets by Ste12 may be specific to S. cerevisiae. Overall our results demonstrate that transcription binding sites differ faster than gene content indicating that gene regulation at the level of transcription factor binding is likely to be a major mode of evolutionary divergence between related species. We expect that this divergence is essential for the distinct ecological niches inhabited by these organisms. Keywords: chIP-chip ChIP-chip was performed on Ste12 and Tec1 from S. cerevisiae, S. mikatae and S. bayanus in addition to Cph1 from S. cerevisiae. Three biological replicates were performed for each factor in each species with one replicate representing a dye swap.

Dataset Information

REforge associates transcription factor binding site divergence in regulatory elements with phenotypic differences between species.

Publications

REforge Associates Transcription Factor Binding Site Divergence in Regulatory Elements with Phenotypic Differences between Species.

Similar Datasets

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