Genes and chromosomes: control of development

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed immense progress in research into the molecular basis behind the developmental regulation of genes. Sets of genes functioning under hierarchical control have been identified, evolutionary conserved systems of genes effecting the cell-to-cell transmission of transmembrane signals and assigned a central role in morphogenesis have been intensively studied; the concept of genomic regulatory networks coordinating expression of many genes has been introduced, to mention some of the major breakthroughs. It should be noted that the temporal and tissue-specific parameters of gene expression are correctly regulated in development only in the context of the chromosome and that they are to a great extent dependent on the position of the gene on the chromosome or the interphase nucleus. Moreover epigenetic inheritance of the gene states through successive cell generations has been conducted exclusively at the chromosome level by virtue of cell or chromosome memory. The ontogenetic memory is an inherent property of the chromosome and cis-regulation has a crucial role in its maintenance.

Characterization of a set of novel meiotically-active promoters in Arabidopsis

“…No GFP signal was observed in three transgenic lines of the candidate promoters (Table 1), although their respective gene transcripts were up-regulated in meiocytes in the RNA-Seq study. This may be attributed to distinctions in developmental age, time of harvest, sensitivity of the used method, the chosen promoter region or that these promoters function in a chromosome positional dependent manner [59,60]. Nevertheless, our work provided a significant number of promoters that can drive gene expression in meiosis.…”