Gain of cis-regulatory activities underlies novel domains of wingless gene expression in Drosophila
Abstract
The origins of novelties pose some of the most difficult experimental challenges in evolutionary biology. Morphological novelties in animals are generally thought to arise through new domains of expression of so-called "toolkit" regulatory genes, but how such changes arise has not been explored in depth. Here, we show that three novel features of wingless gene expression associated with three novel pattern elements are the result of three novel enhancer activities. One of these enhancers is clearly modified from an evolutionarily conserved, pre-existing regulatory sequence. We suggest the modification of extant enhancers is a common path to novelty in gene expression and morphology.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- June 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1509022112
- Bibcode:
- 2015PNAS..112.7524K