is driven by gene regulation
It is not just what’s in the genes, it’s how the genes are turned on that accounts for the difference between species — at least in yeast — according to a report by Yale researchers in the Aug. 10 issue of Science.
— By Janet Rettig Emanuel
T H I S
Conventional wisdom has held that if the difference is not the gene content,
the difference must be in the way regulation of genes produces their protein
products.
Comparing gene regulation across similar organisms has been difficult because
the nucleotide sequence of DNA regulatory regions, or promoters, are more
variable than the sequences of their corresponding protein-coding regions,
making them harder to identify by standard computer comparisons.
“While many molecules that bind DNA regulatory regions have been identified as
transcription factors mediating gene regulation, we have now shown that we can
functionally map these interactions and identify the specific targeted
promoters,” says Snyder. “We were startled to find that even the closely related species of yeast had
extensively differing patterns of regulation.”
In this study, the authors found the DNA binding sites by aiming at their
function, rather than their sequence. First, they isolated transcription
factors that were specifically bound to DNA at their promoter sites. Then, they
analyzed the sequences that were isolated to determine the similarities and
differences in regulatory regions between the different species.
“By using a group of closely and more distantly related yeast whose sequences
were well documented, we were able to see functional differences that had been
invisible to researchers before,” says Snyder. “We expect that this approach will get us closer to understanding the balance
between gene content and gene regulation in the question of human-chimp
diversity.”
Other authors on the paper were Mark Gerstein, Anthony R. Borneman, Tara A.
Gianoulis, Zhengdong D. Zhang, Haiyuan Yu, Joel Rozowsky and Michael R.
Seringhaus at Yale; and Lu Yong Wang at Siemans Corporate Research, Princeton,
New Jersey. The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of
Health and the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation.
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Campus Notes
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