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Related Concept Videos

Position-effect Variegation02:32

Position-effect Variegation

In 1928, a German botanist Emil Heitz observed the moss nuclei with a DNA binding dye. He observed that while some chromatin regions decondense and spread out in the interphase nucleus, others do not. He termed them euchromatin and heterochromatin, respectively. He proposed that the heterochromatin regions reflect a functionally inactive state of the genome. It was later confirmed that heterochromatin is transcriptionally repressed, and euchromatin is transcriptionally active chromatin.
Dosage Compensation02:50

Dosage Compensation

In animals, gender is determined by the number and type of sex chromosome. For example, human females have two X chromosomes, and males have one X and one Y chromosome, whereas C.elegans with one X chromosome is a male, and the one with two X chromosomes is a hermaphrodite.
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Regulation of Expression at Multiple Steps01:23

Regulation of Expression at Multiple Steps

The gene expression in cells is regulated at different stages: (i) transcription, (ii) RNA processing, (iii) RNA localization, and (iv) translation. Transcriptional regulation is mediated by regulatory proteins such as transcription factors, activators, or repressors—these control gene expression by initiating or inhibiting the transcription of genes. Once a precursor or pre-mRNA is produced, it undergoes post-transcriptional modification, including 5' capping, splicing, and the addition of a...
Cis-regulatory Sequences02:02

Cis-regulatory Sequences

Cis-regulatory sequences are short fragments of non-coding DNA that are present on the same chromosomes as the genes that they regulate. These fragments serve as binding sites for transcriptional regulators, proteins that are responsible for controlling gene transcription and differential gene expression across cell types in eukaryotes. Cis-regulatory sequences can be close to the gene of interest or thousands of bases away in the DNA sequence; however, those sequences that are further away are...
Reporter Genes02:11

Reporter Genes

Reporter genes are a type of protein-coding gene that are often tagged to a gene of interest. Once inside a target cell, reporter genes usually produce visually identifiable characteristics like fluorescence and luminescence when expressed along with the gene of interest. Thus, reporter genes “report” the presence or absence of genes of interest in an organism, determine the gene expression pattern, or track the physical location of a DNA segment or protein in the cell.
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Regulation of Expression Occurs at Multiple Steps02:24

Regulation of Expression Occurs at Multiple Steps

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Understanding Early Organogenesis Using a Simplified In Situ Hybridization Protocol in Xenopus
14:50

Understanding Early Organogenesis Using a Simplified In Situ Hybridization Protocol in Xenopus

Published on: January 12, 2015

Mapping gene expression in two Xenopus species: evolutionary constraints and developmental flexibility.

Itai Yanai1, Leonid Peshkin, Paul Jorgensen

  • 1Department of Biology, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.

Developmental Cell
|April 19, 2011
PubMed
Summary

Gene expression changes drive morphological evolution, with conserved transcriptomes between Xenopus species. Most differences involved gene expression levels, particularly in early development, not timing (heterochrony).

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Last Updated: Jun 2, 2026

Understanding Early Organogenesis Using a Simplified In Situ Hybridization Protocol in Xenopus
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Area of Science:

  • Developmental Biology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Comparative Genomics

Background:

  • Gene expression changes are hypothesized to be crucial for morphological evolution.
  • The precise nature and extent of these expression differences remain largely unknown.
  • Amphibians like Xenopus offer models for studying conserved developmental processes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare the transcriptomes of Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis.
  • To investigate the extent of gene expression conservation and divergence.
  • To identify patterns in changes in gene expression levels and timing (heterochrony).

Main Methods:

  • Comparative transcriptome analysis of Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis.
  • Identification and comparison of expressed orthologs between the two species.
  • Analysis of differences in gene expression levels and temporal patterns (heterochrony).

Main Results:

  • Strong conservation of gene expression was observed in most expressed orthologs.
  • Significant changes were found in gene expression levels, concentrated in early embryonic stages.
  • Changes in expression timing (heterochrony) were less common and associated with environmental response pathways.

Conclusions:

  • Despite significant evolutionary divergence (~30-90 million years), Xenopus transcriptomes show remarkable conservation.
  • Evolutionary rate differences across developmental stages may stem from stabilized cell fate determination in later stages.
  • Expression level changes, particularly in early development, appear more prevalent than heterochrony in driving morphological evolution.