Melbourne Integrative Genomics, University of Melbourne, Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia.
School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Royal Parade, Parkville, 3010, Australia.
Genome Biol. 2023 Feb 14;24(1):26. doi: 10.1186/s13059-023-02856-6.
A long-standing goal of evolutionary biology is to decode how gene regulation contributes to organismal diversity. Doing so is challenging because it is hard to predict function from non-coding sequence and to perform molecular research with non-model taxa. Massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs) enable the testing of thousands to millions of sequences for regulatory activity simultaneously. Here, we discuss the execution, advantages, and limitations of MPRAs, with a focus on evolutionary questions. We propose solutions for extending MPRAs to rare taxa and those with limited genomic resources, and we underscore MPRA's broad potential for driving genome-scale, functional studies across organisms.
进化生物学的一个长期目标是解码基因调控如何导致生物多样性。实现这一目标具有挑战性，因为很难从非编码序列预测功能，并且难以对非模式分类单元进行分子研究。大规模平行报告基因检测（MPRA）使同时对数千到数百万个序列的调控活性进行测试成为可能。在这里，我们讨论了 MPRAs 的执行、优点和局限性，重点是进化问题。我们提出了将 MPRAs 扩展到稀有分类单元和基因组资源有限的分类单元的解决方案，并强调了 MPRA 在推动跨生物全基因组功能研究方面的广泛潜力。
