Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna, Austria.
Science. 2013 Mar 1;339(6123):1074-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1232542. Epub 2013 Jan 17.
Genomic enhancers are important regulators of gene expression, but their identification is a challenge, and methods depend on indirect measures of activity. We developed a method termed STARR-seq to directly and quantitatively assess enhancer activity for millions of candidates from arbitrary sources of DNA, which enables screens across entire genomes. When applied to the Drosophila genome, STARR-seq identifies thousands of cell type-specific enhancers across a broad continuum of strengths, links differential gene expression to differences in enhancer activity, and creates a genome-wide quantitative enhancer map. This map reveals the highly complex regulation of transcription, with several independent enhancers for both developmental regulators and ubiquitously expressed genes. STARR-seq can be used to identify and quantify enhancer activity in other eukaryotes, including humans.
基因组增强子是基因表达的重要调控因子，但它们的鉴定具有挑战性，并且方法取决于对活性的间接测量。我们开发了一种称为 STARR-seq 的方法，可直接定量评估来自任意 DNA 来源的数百万个候选物的增强子活性，从而可以在整个基因组中进行筛选。当应用于果蝇基因组时，STARR-seq 鉴定出数千个具有广泛强度的细胞类型特异性增强子，将差异基因表达与增强子活性差异联系起来，并创建了一个全基因组定量增强子图谱。该图谱揭示了转录的高度复杂调控，对于发育调节剂和普遍表达的基因，都有几个独立的增强子。STARR-seq 可用于鉴定和量化其他真核生物（包括人类）中的增强子活性。
