Structure and evolution of regulatory DNA: shavenbaby and beyond

FRANKEL, NICOLÁS

Montevideo

Congreso; SMBE Satellite Meeting South America; 2022

My lab is focused on understanding the structure and evolution of regulatoryDNA (non-coding DNA that regulates gene expression). We are particularly interestedin transcriptional enhancers, which are regulatory elements that activate geneexpression by interacting with the basal transcriptional machinery at promoters.Over many years, we have studied the cis-regulatory region of a Drosophila genenamed shavenbaby (svb). svb encodes a transcription factor that is involved in theformation of non-sensory hairs named trichomes, which decorate the cuticle of insects.In this presentation I am going to delineate what we have discovered studyingthe function and evolution of the cis-regulatory region of svb in Drosophila species.Specifically, I am going to describe what we have learned about (i) the genetic basisof morphological evolution, (ii) the role of redundancy in regulatory DNA, (iii) therole of pleiotropy in enhancer function and about (iv) the density of regulatory informationin non-coding DNA. I will also discuss how these findings have advancedthe field and whether these findings can be generalized to other taxa