小柯机器人

德国马克斯·普朗克分子生物医学研究所Juan M. Vaquerizas团队发现，果蝇背腹形成过程中的基因调控不依赖于染色质构象。该项研究成果于2021年4月1日在线发表在《自然—遗传学》杂志上。

通过使用果蝇胚胎的背腹形成作为模型系统，研究人员为染色质组织和背腹基因表达的独立性提供了证据。研究人员定义了组织特异性增强子，并使用单细胞RNA序列将它们连接到表达模式。出乎意料的是，尽管组织具有特定的染色质状态和基因表达，但染色质组织在整个组织中仍得到很大程度的维持。这些结果表明，组织特异性染色质构象对于组织特异性基因表达不是必需的，而是当增强子变得活跃时充当促进基因表达的支架。

据介绍，染色质组织与基因调控之间的关系仍不清楚。虽然染色质结构域和结构域边界的破坏会导致发育基因的错误表达，但基因组组织调节因子的急剧耗竭对基因表达的影响相对较小。因此，尚不确定基因表达和染色质状态是否驱动染色质组织或者染色质组织的变化是否促进基因表达的细胞类型特异性激活。

附：英文原文

Title: Independence of chromatin conformation and gene regulation during Drosophila dorsoventral patterning

Author: Elizabeth Ing-Simmons, Roshan Vaid, Xin Yang Bing, Michael Levine, Mattias Mannervik, Juan M. Vaquerizas

Issue&Volume: 2021-04-01

Abstract: The relationship between chromatin organization and gene regulation remains unclear. While disruption of chromatin domains and domain boundaries can lead to misexpression of developmental genes, acute depletion of regulators of genome organization has a relatively small effect on gene expression. It is therefore uncertain whether gene expression and chromatin state drive chromatin organization or whether changes in chromatin organization facilitate cell-type-specific activation of gene expression. Here, using the dorsoventral patterning of the Drosophila melanogaster embryo as a model system, we provide evidence for the independence of chromatin organization and dorsoventral gene expression. We define tissue-specific enhancers and link them to expression patterns using single-cell RNA-seq. Surprisingly, despite tissue-specific chromatin states and gene expression, chromatin organization is largely maintained across tissues. Our results indicate that tissue-specific chromatin conformation is not necessary for tissue-specific gene expression but rather acts as a scaffold facilitating gene expression when enhancers become active. 

DOI: 10.1038/s41588-021-00799-x

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00799-x

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