Biology

The Abdominal-B promoter tethering element mediates promoter-enhancer specificity at the Drosophila bithorax complex

Document Type

Article

Abstract

At the Drosophila bithorax complex many distinct classes of cis-regulatory modules work collectively during development to control gene expression. Abdominal-B (Abd-B) is one of three homeotic genes in the BX-C and is expressed in speciters, insulators, silencers, enhancers, promoter targeting sequences and the recently identified promoter tethering element (PTE). To activate gene expression at the endogenous complex, enhancers located >50 kb away must bypass intervening insulators to interact with the Abd-B promoter. The molecular mechanisms that allow enhancers to bypass insulators are not currently well understood. In this short article, we report on a novel mechanism for insulator bypass involving the PTE. In addition, we use bioinformatic analysis across twelve Drosophila genomes to identify putative cis-regulatory sequences that may be capable of facilitating specific promoter-enhancer interactions at the bithorax complex and propose a model for their molecular function during development. © 2007 Landes Bioscience.

Publication Title

Fly

Publication Date

2-4-2008

Volume

1

Issue

6

First Page

337

Last Page

339

ISSN

1933-6934

DOI

10.4161/fly.5607

Keywords

Abdominal-B, Bithorax, cis regulation, Drosophila, enhancer, promoter

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