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Updated: Aug 6, 2026

A Web-Based Workflow for Selecting Gene- and Tissue-Specific Enhancers
Published on: July 18, 2025
Primate-specific evolution of an LDLR enhancer
Qian-fei Wang1, Shyam Prabhakar, Qianben Wang
1Genomics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. QFWang@lbl.gov
Background:
Sequence changes in regulatory regions have often been invoked to explain phenotypic divergence among species, but molecular examples of this have been difficult to obtain.
Results:
In this study we identified an anthropoid primate-specific sequence element that contributed to the regulatory evolution of the low-density lipoprotein receptor. Using a combination of close and distant species genomic sequence comparisons coupled with in vivo and in vitro studies, we found that a functional cholesterol-sensing sequence motif arose and was fixed within a pre-existing enhancer in the common ancestor of anthropoid primates.
Conclusion:
Our study demonstrates one molecular mechanism by which ancestral mammalian regulatory elements can evolve to perform new functions in the primate lineage leading to human.
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