The structure and evolution of cis-regulatory regions: the shavenbaby story

In this paper, we provide a historical account of the contribution of a single line of research to our current understanding of the structure of cis-regulatory regions and the genetic basis for morphological evolution. We revisit the experiments that shed light on the evolution of larval cuticular p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences 2013-12, Vol.368 (1632), p.20130028-20130028
Main Authors: Stern, David L., Frankel, Nicolás
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
cis-regulatory evolution
cis-regulatory structure
DNA-Binding Proteins - genetics
DNA-Binding Proteins - metabolism
Drosophila - embryology
Drosophila - genetics
Drosophila - growth & development
Drosophila Proteins - genetics
Drosophila Proteins - metabolism
Evolution Of Enhancer Function
Evolution, Molecular
Gene
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental - genetics
Morphogenesis - genetics
Morphological Change
Regulatory Evolution
Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid - genetics
Regulatory Structure
Review
shavenbaby gene
Species Specificity
Transcription Factors - genetics
Transcription Factors - metabolism
Trichomes - genetics
Trichomes - growth & development
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Summary:In this paper, we provide a historical account of the contribution of a single line of research to our current understanding of the structure of cis-regulatory regions and the genetic basis for morphological evolution. We revisit the experiments that shed light on the evolution of larval cuticular patterns within the genus Drosophila and the evolution and structure of the shavenbaby gene. We describe the experiments that led to the discovery that multiple genetic changes in the cis-regulatory region of shavenbaby caused the loss of dorsal cuticular hairs (quaternary trichomes) in first instar larvae of Drosophila sechellia. We also discuss the experiments that showed that the convergent loss of quaternary trichomes in D. sechellia and Drosophila ezoana was generated by parallel genetic changes in orthologous enhancers of shavenbaby. We discuss the observation that multiple shavenbaby enhancers drive overlapping patterns of expression in the embryo and that these apparently redundant enhancers ensure robust shavenbaby expression and trichome morphogenesis under stressful conditions. All together, these data, collected over 13 years, provide a fundamental case study in the fields of gene regulation and morphological evolution, and highlight the importance of prolonged, detailed studies of single genes.
ISSN:0962-8436
1471-2970
DOI:10.1098/rstb.2013.0028