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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 16, 2025

Lineage Tracing and Clonal Analysis in Developing Cerebral Cortex Using Mosaic Analysis with Double Markers MADM
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Animal origins: looping back in time.

Omar Matar1, Ferdinand Marlétaz1

  • 1Centre for Life's Origin and Evolution, Department of Genetics, Ecology & Evolution, University College London, London, UK.

Trends in Genetics : TIG
|July 11, 2025
PubMed
Summary

Chromatin folding, essential for gene regulation, emerged with complex gene expression during animal evolution. Researchers discovered diverse looping mechanisms in early animal relatives and lineages.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Genomics
  • Molecular biology

Background:

  • Gene regulation is crucial for multicellular life.
  • Chromatin folding plays a key role in controlling gene expression.
  • Understanding the evolutionary origins of these mechanisms is vital.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the evolutionary emergence of chromatin folding mechanisms.
  • To correlate chromatin looping with gene regulation complexity in early animal lineages.
  • To explore the diversity of chromatin looping strategies.

Main Methods:

  • High-resolution chromatin folding surveys.
  • Comparative analysis across unicellular relatives of animals and non-bilaterian animals.
  • Integration of genomic and gene regulation data.

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Main Results:

  • Chromatin loops appeared at the same time as complex gene regulation.
  • Significant diversity in chromatin looping mechanisms was observed.
  • Early animal evolution shows a link between genome organization and regulatory complexity.

Conclusions:

  • Chromatin folding mechanisms evolved alongside complex gene regulation in early animals.
  • The study reveals unexpected diversity in these fundamental evolutionary processes.
  • This work provides insights into the genomic underpinnings of animal diversification.