Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 31, 2025

Author Spotlight: An Integrated Workflow to Study the Promoter-Centric Spatio-Temporal Genome Architecture in Scarce Cell Populations
Published on: April 21, 2023
Protein-coding changes preceded cis-regulatory gains in a newly evolved transcription circuit
Candace S Britton1,2, Trevor R Sorrells1,2, Alexander D Johnson3
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
Abstract:
Changes in both the coding sequence of transcriptional regulators and in the cis-regulatory sequences recognized by these regulators have been implicated in the evolution of transcriptional circuits. However, little is known about how they evolved in concert. We describe an evolutionary pathway in fungi where a new transcriptional circuit (a-specific gene repression by the homeodomain protein Matα2) evolved by coding changes in this ancient regulator, followed millions of years later by cis-regulatory sequence changes in the genes of its future regulon. By analyzing a group of species that has acquired the coding changes but not the cis-regulatory sites, we show that the coding changes became necessary for the regulator's deeply conserved function, thereby poising the regulator to jump-start formation of the new circuit.
Related Concept Videos
Cis-regulatory Sequences
Cis-regulatory Sequences
Cooperative Binding of Transcription Regulators
Cooperative Binding of Transcription Regulators
RNA Polymerase II Accessory Proteins
Co-activators and Co-repressors

