Enhancers lie at the heart of transcriptional and developmental gene regulation. Therefore, chang... more Enhancers lie at the heart of transcriptional and developmental gene regulation. Therefore, changes in enhancer sequences usually disrupt the target gene expression and result in disease phenotypes. Despite the well-established role of enhancers in development and disease, evolutionary sequence studies are lacking. The current study attempts to unravel the puzzle of bony vertebrates’ conserved noncoding elements (CNE) enhancer evolution. Bayesian phylogenetics of enhancer sequences spotlights promising interordinal relationships among placental mammals, proposing a closer relationship between humans and laurasiatherians while placing rodents at the basal position. Clock-based estimates of enhancer evolution provided a dynamic picture of interspecific rate changes across the bony vertebrate lineage. Moreover, coelacanth in the study augmented our appreciation of the vertebrate cis regulatory evolution during water–land transition. Intriguingly, we observed a pronounced upsurge in enhancer evolution in land dwelling vertebrates. These novel findings triggered us to further investigate the evolutionary trend of coding as well as CNE non enhancer repertoires, to highlight the relative evolutionary dynamics of diverse genomic landscapes. Surprisingly, the evolutionary rates of enhancer sequences were clearly at odds with those of the coding and the CNE non enhancer sequences during vertebrate adaptation to land, with land vertebrates exhibiting significantly reduced rates of coding sequence evolution in comparison to their fast evolving regulatory landscape. The observed variation in tetrapod cis-regulatory elements caused the fine-tuning of associated gene regulatory networks. Therefore, the increased evolutionary rate of tetrapods’ enhancer sequences might be responsible for the variation in developmental regulatory circuits during the process of vertebrate adaptation to land.
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Papers by Aisha Yousaf
disrupt the target gene expression and result in disease phenotypes. Despite the well-established role of enhancers in development
and disease, evolutionary sequence studies are lacking. The current study attempts to unravel the puzzle of bony vertebrates’
conserved noncoding elements (CNE) enhancer evolution. Bayesian phylogenetics of enhancer sequences spotlights promising
interordinal relationships among placental mammals, proposing a closer relationship between humans and laurasiatherians while
placing rodents at the basal position. Clock-based estimates of enhancer evolution provided a dynamic picture of interspecific rate
changes across the bony vertebrate lineage. Moreover, coelacanth in the study augmented our appreciation of the vertebrate cis regulatory
evolution during water–land transition. Intriguingly, we observed a pronounced upsurge in enhancer evolution in land dwelling
vertebrates. These novel findings triggered us to further investigate the evolutionary trend of coding as well as CNE
non enhancer repertoires, to highlight the relative evolutionary dynamics of diverse genomic landscapes. Surprisingly, the evolutionary
rates of enhancer sequences were clearly at odds with those of the coding and the CNE non enhancer sequences during vertebrate
adaptation to land, with land vertebrates exhibiting significantly reduced rates of coding sequence evolution in comparison to their
fast evolving regulatory landscape. The observed variation in tetrapod cis-regulatory elements caused the fine-tuning of associated
gene regulatory networks. Therefore, the increased evolutionary rate of tetrapods’ enhancer sequences might be responsible for the
variation in developmental regulatory circuits during the process of vertebrate adaptation to land.