Ludwig Michael Z
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2002 Dec;12(6):634-9. doi: 10.1016/s0959-437x(02)00355-6.
Noncoding DNA in eukaryotes encodes functionally important signals for the regulation of chromosome assembly, DNA replication, and gene expression. The increasing availability of whole-genome sequences of related taxa has led to interest in the evolution of these signals, and the phylogenetic footprints they produce. Cis-regulatory sequences controlling gene expression are often conserved among related species, but are rarely conserved between distantly related taxa. Several experimentally characterized regulatory elements have failed to show sequence similarity even between closely related species.
真核生物中的非编码DNA编码了用于调节染色体组装、DNA复制和基因表达的功能重要信号。相关分类群全基因组序列的可得性不断提高，引发了人们对这些信号的进化以及它们所产生的系统发育足迹的兴趣。控制基因表达的顺式调控序列在相关物种中通常是保守的，但在远缘分类群之间很少保守。一些经过实验表征的调控元件甚至在亲缘关系很近的物种之间也未显示出序列相似性。
