CACR/Cellcenter collaboration with developmental biologists yields insight in fruit fly genomics

CACR Publication News: Cellcenter collaboration with developmental biologists yields insight in fruit fly genomics

“High resolution mapping of Twist to DNA in Drosophila embryos: Efficient functional analysis and evolutionary conservation” was published in the Genome Research Journal, Advanced Online Access, March 2011. Genome Research focuses on research that provides novel insights into the genome biology of all organisms, including advances in genomic medicine.

From the abstract:

“Cis-regulatory modules (CRMs) function by binding sequence specific transcription factors, but the relationship between in vivo physical binding and the regulatory capacity of factor-bound DNA elements remains uncertain. We investigate this relationship for the well-studied Twist factor in Drosophila melanogaster embryos by analyzing genome-wide factor occupancy and testing the functional significance of Twist occupied regions and motifs within regions … Our results show that high resolution in vivo occupancy data can be used to drive efficient discovery and dissection of global and local cis-regulatory logic.” (more)

CACR staff member Shirley Pepke analyzed the ChIP-seq binding data and found enhanced evolutionary conservation associated with candidate cis regulatory modules.

About Cellcenter: The goal of the Center for Integrative Study of Cell Regulation (Cell Center) is to develop new computational methods for understanding how the many genes and proteins that make up individual cells work together to carry out specialized functions of different cell types, including neurons, plant cells, and bacteria. See www.cellcenter.caltech.edu for further information.