Cloudy with a Chance of Insights: Context Dependent Gene Regulation and Implications for Evolutionary Studies
1
Dpt. of Developmental Biology, Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), University Göttingen, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 11, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
2
International Max Planck Research School for Genome Science, Am Fassberg 11, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Equally contributed.
Genes 2019, 10(7), 492; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes10070492
Received: 24 May 2019
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Revised: 20 June 2019
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Accepted: 26 June 2019
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Published: 28 June 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evolutionary Genetics of Gene Expression)
Research in various fields of evolutionary biology has shown that divergence in gene expression is a key driver for phenotypic evolution. An exceptional contribution of cis-regulatory divergence has been found to contribute to morphological diversification. In the light of these findings, the analysis of genome-wide expression data has become one of the central tools to link genotype and phenotype information on a more mechanistic level. However, in many studies, especially if general conclusions are drawn from such data, a key feature of gene regulation is often neglected. With our article, we want to raise awareness that gene regulation and thus gene expression is highly context dependent. Genes show tissue- and stage-specific expression. We argue that the regulatory context must be considered in comparative expression studies.
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Keywords:
gene expression; gene regulation; evolution; allele specific expression; expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL); RNAseq; ChIPseq; chromatin; Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin using sequencing (ATACseq); genotype–phenotype map
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MDPI and ACS Style
Buchberger, E.; Reis, M.; Lu, T.-H.; Posnien, N. Cloudy with a Chance of Insights: Context Dependent Gene Regulation and Implications for Evolutionary Studies. Genes 2019, 10, 492. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes10070492
AMA Style
Buchberger E, Reis M, Lu T-H, Posnien N. Cloudy with a Chance of Insights: Context Dependent Gene Regulation and Implications for Evolutionary Studies. Genes. 2019; 10(7):492. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes10070492
Chicago/Turabian StyleBuchberger, Elisa, Micael Reis, Ting-Hsuan Lu, and Nico Posnien. 2019. "Cloudy with a Chance of Insights: Context Dependent Gene Regulation and Implications for Evolutionary Studies" Genes 10, no. 7: 492. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes10070492
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