Deep conservation of the enhancer regulatory code in animals
Abstract
Enhancer function, from sponges to humans: Identifying the function of enhancers, DNA regions that help to regulate gene expression and evolve rapidly, has been difficult. This area of research has been hampered by the difficultly in identifying functional conservation. Wong et al. now show that despite low sequence conservation, enhancer function is strongly conserved through the animal kingdom (see the Perspective by Harmston). Transgenic expression of sponge enhancers in zebrafish and mice demonstrates that these sequences can drive cell type–specific gene expression across species. These results suggest an unexpectedly deep level of conservation of gene regulation across the animal kingdom maintained over the course of metazoan evolution. Science , this issue p. eaax8137 ; see also p. 657
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No known enhancers are completely conserved at the base level across the animal kingdom.
“In terms of their sequence, there are no known enhancers that are completely conserved at the base level across the animal kingdom [101].”
From Transcriptional enhancers and their communication with gene promoters (2021) · cites this paper as [101]
Homologous enhancers in a pair of distantly related species can retain their function in the non-host organism despite differences in DNA sequence.
“Consistent with this, homologous enhancers in a pair of distantly related species can retain their function in the non-host organism despite differences in DNA sequence [101, 110, 111].”
From Transcriptional enhancers and their communication with gene promoters (2021) · cites this paper as [101]
Enhancer conservation is typically modular, commonly preserving the sets of binding sites for the required transcription factors, but often not their exact sequence and orientation.
“Instead, enhancer conservation is typically “modular”, commonly preserving the sets of binding sites for the required TFs, but often not their exact sequence and orientation [101–109].”
From Transcriptional enhancers and their communication with gene promoters (2021) · cites this paper as [101]
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References 91 · Cited by 176
- Authors
- Wong, E. S., Zheng, D., Tan, S. Z., Bower, N. I., Garside, V., Vanwalleghem, G., Gaiti, F., Scott, E., Hogan, B. M., Kikuchi, K., McGlinn, E., Francois, M., & Degnan, B. M.
- Affiliations
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute (AU)
- Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (AU)
- Institute for Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
- Corresponding author
- Wong, Emily S.
- Zheng, Dawei
- Tan, Siew Z.
- Degnan, Bernard M.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2020-11-06
- Volume
- 370
- Issue
- 6517
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W3095586809
- Cited by
- 176
- References
- 91
- Citations by year
- 2026: 28 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 6.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Australian Research Council (DE160100755, DP160100573, FL110100044, DP200100250)
- National Health and Medical Research Council (AP1111169, APP1107643)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology and Gene Regulation
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Chromosomal and Genetic Variations
- Keywords
- enhancers, enhancer function, gene regulatory evolution, transgene expression, cell type-specific gene expression, animal evolution, sequence conservation, zebrafish, mice
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Base Sequence, Enhancer Elements, Genetic, Humans, Porifera, Transcription Factors, Zebrafish, Conserved Sequence, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, Chromatin Immunoprecipitation, Mice, LIM-Homeodomain Proteins
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