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Related Experiment Videos

Evolutionary changes in cis and trans gene regulation.

Patricia J Wittkopp1, Belinda K Haerum, Andrew G Clark

  • 1Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA. pw72@cornell.edu

Nature
|July 2, 2004
PubMed
Summary
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Gene expression differences drive evolution. This study reveals that most evolutionary gene expression changes stem from numerous cis-regulatory alterations, not widespread trans-regulatory effects, between Drosophila species.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Genetics
  • Molecular biology

Background:

  • Gene expression differences are fundamental to evolutionary processes.
  • Both cis-regulatory and trans-regulatory changes contribute to divergence in gene expression.
  • The relative contributions of cis- and trans-regulatory changes to expression divergence are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the distribution of cis- and trans-regulatory changes underlying gene expression differences between Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans.
  • To quantify the impact of cis- and trans-regulatory changes on species-specific gene expression divergence.

Main Methods:

  • Comparing relative abundance of species-specific transcripts in F1 hybrids to identify functional cis-regulatory differences.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Inferring trans-regulatory activity by comparing allelic expression ratios in hybrids to interspecific gene expression ratios.

    • Main Results:

    • Of 29 genes with interspecific expression differences, 28 showed cis-regulatory changes.
    • Cis-regulatory changes alone explained expression divergence for approximately half of the studied genes.
    • Trans-regulatory differences were observed in 55% of genes and always co-occurred with cis-regulatory changes.

    Conclusions:

    • Interspecific gene expression differences are primarily driven by numerous, genome-wide cis-acting regulatory changes.
    • Widespread trans-regulatory changes with broad effects are not the main cause of expression divergence between these Drosophila species.