Journal
GENES & DEVELOPMENT
Volume 31, Issue 6, Pages 590-602Publisher
COLD SPRING HARBOR LAB PRESS, PUBLICATIONS DEPT
DOI: 10.1101/gad.292870.116
Keywords
Polycomb response elements (PREs); pleiohomeotic repressive complex (PhoRC); developmental enhancers; spatio-temporal expression; transcriptional repression; silencing; embryonic development
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Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [FU 750/1-2]
- Louis-Jeantet Foundation
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Developmental gene expression is tightly regulated through enhancer elements, which initiate dynamic spatio-temporal expression, and Polycomb response elements (PREs), which maintain stable gene silencing. These two cis-regulatory functions are thought to operate through distinct dedicated elements. By examining the occupancy of the Drosophila pleiohomeotic repressive complex (PhoRC) during embryogenesis, we revealed extensive co-occupancy at developmental enhancers. Using an established in vivo assay for PRE activity, we demonstrated that a subset of characterized developmental enhancers can function as PREs, silencing transcription in a Polycomb-dependent manner. Conversely, some classic Drosophila PREs can function as developmental enhancers in vivo, activating spatio-temporal expression. This study therefore uncovers elements with dual function: activating transcription in some cells (enhancers) while stably maintaining transcriptional silencing in others (PREs). Given that enhancers initiate spatio-temporal gene expression, reuse of the same elements by the Polycomb group (PcG) system may help fine-tune gene expression and ensure the timely maintenance of cell identities.
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