Boutanaev Alexander M, Kalmykova Alla I, Shevelyov Yuri Y, Nurminsky Dmitry I
Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02111, USA.
Nature. 2002 Dec 12;420(6916):666-9. doi: 10.1038/nature01216.
Clustering of co-expressed, non-homologous genes on chromosomes implies their co-regulation. In lower eukaryotes, co-expressed genes are often found in pairs. Clustering of genes that share aspects of transcriptional regulation has also been reported in higher eukaryotes. To advance our understanding of the mode of coordinated gene regulation in multicellular organisms, we performed a genome-wide analysis of the chromosomal distribution of co-expressed genes in Drosophila. We identified a total of 1,661 testes-specific genes, one-third of which are clustered on chromosomes. The number of clusters of three or more genes is much higher than expected by chance. We observed a similar trend for genes upregulated in the embryo and in the adult head, although the expression pattern of individual genes cannot be predicted on the basis of chromosomal position alone. Our data suggest that the prevalent mechanism of transcriptional co-regulation in higher eukaryotes operates with extensive chromatin domains that comprise multiple genes.
共表达的非同源基因在染色体上的聚类意味着它们受到共同调控。在低等真核生物中，共表达基因常常成对出现。在高等真核生物中也报道过共享转录调控方面的基因聚类现象。为了加深我们对多细胞生物中基因协同调控模式的理解，我们对果蝇中共表达基因的染色体分布进行了全基因组分析。我们总共鉴定出1661个睾丸特异性基因，其中三分之一在染色体上聚类。三个或更多基因的聚类数量远高于随机预期。我们在胚胎和成年头部上调的基因中也观察到了类似趋势，尽管不能仅根据染色体位置来预测单个基因的表达模式。我们的数据表明，高等真核生物中普遍存在的转录共调控机制是通过包含多个基因的广泛染色质结构域来运作的。
