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Transcription regulation and animal diversity

Nature volume 424, pages 147–151 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Whole-genome sequence assemblies are now available for seven different animals, including nematode worms, mice and humans. Comparative genome analyses reveal a surprising constancy in genetic content: vertebrate genomes have only about twice the number of genes that invertebrate genomes have, and the increase is primarily due to the duplication of existing genes rather than the invention of new ones. How, then, has evolutionary diversity arisen? Emerging evidence suggests that organismal complexity arises from progressively more elaborate regulation of gene expression.

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Figure 1: Comparison of a simple eukaryotic promoter and extensively diversified metazoan regulatory modules.
Figure 2: The multi-subunit general transcription apparatus: identification of tissue-specific and gene-selective subunits.
Figure 3: Diversification of cofactor complexes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Y. Nibu, A. Ladurner and J. Ziegalbauer for preparing the figures. We also thank D. Rio and L. Mirels for critically reviewing the manuscript. M.L is supported by the NIH and R.T. is funded in part by a grant from the NIH.

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  1. Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Division of Genetics and Development, Center for Integrative Genomics,

    Michael Levine & Robert Tjian

  2. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, 401 Barker Hall, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA

    Robert Tjian

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Correspondence to Michael Levine or Robert Tjian.

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Levine, M., Tjian, R. Transcription regulation and animal diversity. Nature 424, 147–151 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01763

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