美国加州大学旧金山分校Alexander D. Johnson课题组发现在在新进化的转录回路中，蛋白质编码变化先于顺式调节的形成。相关论文于2020年1月3日发表于国际学术期刊《科学》。

研究人员表示，转录调节因子的编码序列和被这些调节因子识别的顺式调节序列的变化都与转录回路的进化有关。但是，人们对它们如何协同进化知之甚少。

研究人员描述了真菌中的进化途径，其通过编码这种古老调节因子的变化而进化出新的转录回路（由同源域蛋白Matα2介导的特异性基因抑制），随后数百万年中其未来调节子基因的顺式调节序列发生变化 。通过分析一组已经获得编码变化但不具有顺式调节位点的物种，研究人员发现编码变化对于调节因子的深度保守功能而言是必需的，从而使调节因子具备了启动新回路形成的能力。

附：英文原文

Title: Protein-coding changes preceded cis-regulatory gains in a newly evolved transcription circuit

Author: Candace S. Britton, Trevor R. Sorrells, Alexander D. Johnson

Issue&Volume: 2020/01/03

Abstract: Changes in both the coding sequence of transcriptional regulators and in the cis-regulatory sequences recognized by these regulators have been implicated in the evolution of transcriptional circuits. However, little is known about how they evolved in concert. We describe an evolutionary pathway in fungi where a new transcriptional circuit (a-specific gene repression by the homeodomain protein Matα2) evolved by coding changes in this ancient regulator, followed millions of years later by cis-regulatory sequence changes in the genes of its future regulon. By analyzing a group of species that has acquired the coding changes but not the cis-regulatory sites, we show that the coding changes became necessary for the regulator’s deeply conserved function, thereby poising the regulator to jump-start formation of the new circuit.

DOI: 10.1126/science.aax5217

Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6473/96