GSE133191 Protein-coding changes preceded cis-regulatory gains in newly evolved transcription circuit

We describe an evolutionary pathway in fungi where a new transcriptional circuit (a-specific gene repression by Mat α2) evolved by coding changes in an ancient master regulator followed millions of years later by cis-regulatory sequence changes in the genes of its future regulon. We discerned this order of events by analyzing a group of species in which the coding changes in the regulator are present, but the ci s-regulatory changes in the target genes have not yet occurred. In this group we show that the coding changes became necessary for the regulator’s deeply conserved function and were therefore preserved. We propose that the changes first arose without altering the overall function of the regulator (although changing the details of its mechanism) and were later co-opted to “jump start” the formation of the new circuit.

Source: GEO: Gene Expression Omnibus - June 25, 2019 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Tags: Expression profiling by high throughput sequencing Wickerhamomyces anomalus Source Type: research