Evolution of yellow Gene Regulation and Pigmentation in Drosophila

Wittkopp, Patricia J.; Vaccaro, Kathy; Carroll, Sean B.

doi:10.1016/s0960-9822(02)01113-2

Cited by 234 publications

(244 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Between Drosophila species, genetic mapping suggests functional divergence at loci encoding pigment synthesis effector genes (ebony [26], tan [5,27]), although these studies do not exclude a role for patterning genes. Both patterning (bric-a-brac [28]) and effector (yellow [29], ebony [26], tan [5]) genes have expression differences that correlate with pigmentation divergence between species. For three of these four genes (bric-a-brac [7], yellow [4], and tan [5]), functional cis-regulatory changes have been identified, with changes in bric-a-brac and yellow shown to alter binding sites for highly pleiotropic transcriptional regulators (Doublesex [7], Abdominal-B [5,7], and Engrailed [4]).…”

Section: Lessons From Drosophilamentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and evolution of insect pigmentation: Genetic mechanisms and the potential consequences of pleiotropy

Wittkopp

Beldade

2009

Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology

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292

291

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a b s t r a c tInsect pigmentation is a premier model system in evolutionary and developmental biology. It has been at the heart of classical studies as well as recent breakthroughs. In insects, pigments are produced by epidermal cells through a developmental process that includes pigment patterning and synthesis. Many aspects of this process also impact other phenotypes, including behavior and immunity. This review discusses recent work on the development and evolution of insect pigmentation, with a focus on pleiotropy and its effects on color pattern diversification.

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Section: Lessons From Drosophilamentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and evolution of insect pigmentation: Genetic mechanisms and the potential consequences of pleiotropy

Wittkopp

Beldade

2009

Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology

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292

291

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“…Changes in enhancer sequence are a common cause of cis-regulatory divergence (eg Fang and Brennan (1992), Ross et al (1994), Wittkopp et al (2002). Enhancer sequences specify when, where, and how much mRNA will be transcribed from the associated coding sequence.…”

Section: Enhancers Control Patterns Of Gene Expressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Identifying cis-regulatory sequences mediating conserved regulatory inputs helps unravel genomic regulatory networks. Traits that differ among Dipteran species, such as body coloration, bristle patterns, and larval hairs, often correlate with divergent expression of developmental proteins (Stern, 1998;Sucena and Stern, 2000;Wulbeck and Simpson, 2000;Pistillo et al, 2002;Wittkopp et al, 2002;Gompel and Carroll, 2003) (Figure 1). Cis-regulatory sequences that control transcription are a common source of divergent protein expression patterns and thus of phenotypic change (Carroll et al, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of cis-regulatory sequence and function in Diptera

Wittkopp

2006

Heredity

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Cis-regulatory sequences direct patterns of gene expression essential for development and physiology. Evolutionary changes in these sequences contribute to phenotypic divergence. Despite their importance, cis-regulatory regions remain one of the most enigmatic features of the genome. Patterns of sequence evolution can be used to identify cisregulatory elements, but the power of this approach depends upon the relationship between sequence and function. Comparative studies of gene regulation among Diptera reveal that divergent sequences can underlie conserved expression, and that expression differences can evolve despite largely similar sequences. This complex structure-function relationship is the primary impediment for computational identification and interpretation of cis-regulatory sequences. Biochemical characterization and in vivo assays of cis-regulatory sequences on a genomic-scale will relieve this barrier.

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“…Although differences in gene expression patterns have been described previously (e.g., refs. [3][4][5][6], evolutionary gain of gene expression has not been conclusively shown, to our knowledge.…”

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confidence: 78%

Evolutionary innovation of the excretory system in Caenorhabditis elegans

Wang

Chamberlin

2004

Nat Genet

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The evolution of complexity relies on changes that result in new gene functions. Here we show that the unique morphological and functional features of the excretory duct cell in C. elegans result from the gain of expression of a single gene. Our results show that innovation can be achieved by altered expression of a transcription factor without coevolution of all target genes.Differences in gene expression patterns contribute to the structural and functional differences between species 1,2 . These differences can result from loss of a particular regulatory element from the gene in one species or gain of the element in the other. From an evolutionary standpoint, only changes that result in a gain of expression serve to increase genomic and species complexity. Although differences in gene expression patterns have been described previously (e.g., refs. 3-6), evolutionary gain of gene expression has not been conclusively shown, to our knowledge.The excretory system in nematodes mediates osmotic and ionic regulation 7,8 . C. elegans and C. briggsae have different morphologies of part of the excretory system, the excretory duct cell, including different positions of the duct opening 9 . It was not known whether this difference resulted from loss of a feature in C. briggsae or from gain of a feature in C. elegans. We characterized several strains representing six species and found that C. elegans is unique among Caenorhabditis species with respect to duct position (Fig. 1a). In an assay of excretory system function, C. elegans also showed a greater ability to survive when challenged with high salt (Fig. 1b). Thus, C. elegans has innovations in both structure and function of the excretory system.The zinc-finger gene lin-48 is expressed in the C. elegans excretory duct cell and is necessary for normal duct cell features 9 (Fig. 2), but it is not expressed in this cell in C. briggsae. One difference between the two species is the presence of enhancers in C. elegans lin-48 that are required for correct expression of lin-48, including sites that respond to the bZip transcription factor CES-2 (ref. 9). We isolated lin-48 from two additional Caenorhabditis species and did not find the CES-2 enhancer sequences that are present in C. elegans lin-48 (Fig. 1c). We made lin-48:gfp reporter transgenes and found that lin-48 from the other species was expressed at lower levels than C. elegans lin-48:gfp in the excretory duct cell (Fig. 1d). In contrast, lin-48 cDNA from each of the four species rescued the structural and functional defects in C. elegans lin-48 mutants (Fig. 2a,b). These results indicate that changes have occurred in the regulation of lin-48 expression but not in the function of LIN-48 protein.The genetic and comparative analysis shows C. elegans has unique excretory system features that result from the gain of expression of a transcription factor. However, a transcription factor can mediate cellular effects only if target genes respond. Are naive excretory duct cells able to respond appropriately to LIN-48 when intro...

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Evolution of yellow Gene Regulation and Pigmentation in Drosophila

Abstract: Evolutionary changes in Yellow expression correlate with divergent melanin patterns and are a result of evolution in both cis- and trans-regulation. These changes were likely necessary for the divergence of pigmentation, but evolutionary changes in other genes were also required.

Cited by 234 publications

References 55 publications

Development and evolution of insect pigmentation: Genetic mechanisms and the potential consequences of pleiotropy

Development and evolution of insect pigmentation: Genetic mechanisms and the potential consequences of pleiotropy

Evolution of cis-regulatory sequence and function in Diptera

Evolutionary innovation of the excretory system in Caenorhabditis elegans

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