Recapitulating Evolutionary Divergence in a Single Cis-Regulatory Element Is Sufficient to Cause Expression Changes of the Lens Gene Tdrd7

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftForschungsartikelBeigetragenBegutachtung

Beitragende

  • Juliana G Roscito - , Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Autor:in)
  • Kaushikaram Subramanian - , Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Zentrum für Systembiologie Dresden (CSBD) (Autor:in)
  • Ronald Naumann - , Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Autor:in)
  • Mihail Sarov - , Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Autor:in)
  • Anna Shevchenko - , Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Autor:in)
  • Aliona Bogdanova - , Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Autor:in)
  • Thomas Kurth - , Core Facility Elektronenmikroskopie & Histologie, Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering (CMCB) (Autor:in)
  • Leo Foerster - , Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Autor:in)
  • Moritz Kreysing - , Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Autor:in)
  • Michael Hiller - , Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Autor:in)

Abstract

Mutations in cis-regulatory elements play important roles for phenotypic changes during evolution. Eye degeneration in the blind mole rat (BMR; Nannospalax galili) and other subterranean mammals is significantly associated with widespread divergence of eye regulatory elements, but the effect of these regulatory mutations on eye development and function has not been explored. Here, we investigate the effect of mutations observed in the BMR sequence of a conserved noncoding element upstream of Tdrd7, a pleiotropic gene required for lens development and spermatogenesis. We first show that this conserved element is a transcriptional repressor in lens cells and that the BMR sequence partially lost repressor activity. Next, we recapitulated evolutionary changes in this element by precisely replacing the endogenous regulatory element in a mouse line by the orthologous BMR sequence with CRISPR-Cas9. Strikingly, this repressor replacement caused a more than 2-fold upregulation of Tdrd7 in the developing lens; however, increased mRNA level does not result in a corresponding increase in TDRD7 protein nor an obvious lens phenotype, possibly explained by buffering at the posttranscriptional level. Our results are consistent with eye degeneration in subterranean mammals having a polygenic basis where many small-effect mutations in different eye-regulatory elements collectively contribute to phenotypic differences.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)380-392
Seitenumfang13
FachzeitschriftMolecular biology and evolution
Jahrgang38
Ausgabenummer2
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 23 Jan. 2021
Peer-Review-StatusJa

Externe IDs

PubMedCentral PMC7826196
Scopus 85100360822
ORCID /0000-0001-5624-1717/work/142239006

Schlagworte

Schlagwörter

  • Animals, Evolution, Molecular, Female, Lens, Crystalline/growth & development, Male, Mice, Transgenic, Mole Rats/genetics, Regulatory Elements, Transcriptional/genetics, Ribonucleoproteins/genetics