Syntax compensates for poor binding sites to encode tissue specificity of developmental enhancers
Abstract
Transcriptional enhancers are elements within the genome that control when and where genes are expressed. Although they were identified more than 3 decades ago, how DNA sequence encodes enhancer function remains unclear. Here we show that enhancer syntax (the order, orientation, and spacing of transcription factor binding sites) is important for tissue-specific gene expression. Surprisingly, enhancers with low-affinity binding sites can mediate robust tissue specific patterns of gene expression when they are organized with optimal syntax. Such enhancers may be a vastly underappreciated feature of the regulatory genome.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- June 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1605085113
- Bibcode:
- 2016PNAS..113.6508F