美国冷泉港实验室Zachary B. Lippman和以色列希伯来大学Idan Efroni研究小组，利用顺式调控解剖揭示了古代植物同源盒基因的保守多效性。相关论文于2021年3月4日在线发表于国际学术期刊《细胞》杂志。

研究人员探究了WUSCHEL HOMEOBOX9（WOX9）的功能差异，WUSCHEL HOMEOBOX9在胚胎和花序发育中发挥物种特定的功能。使用顺式调控编辑的驱动系统，研究人员在番茄中生成了一个全面的等位基因系列，其揭示了WOX9的隐性多效性功能。对可及性染色质和保守顺式调控序列的分析确定了调控这种多效性的活性区域，其功能在番茄近亲红菇娘中得以保留。

在拟南芥中模拟这些等位基因的功能揭示了新的花序表型，并揭示了一个高度保守的多效性基因；拟南芥与番茄和红菇娘亲缘关系较远。因此，有针对性的顺式调控突变可以揭示保守基因的功能并减少作物改良中的不良影响。

据了解，基因功能差异是进化的标志，但评估长时间尺度内功能差异进化并非易事。可用于跨物种研究的少数等位基因通常无法揭示基因的整个功能谱，从而可能掩盖了深度保守的多效性作用。

附：英文原文

Title: Conserved pleiotropy of an ancient plant homeobox gene uncovered by cis-regulatory dissection

Author: Anat Hendelman, Sophia Zebell, Daniel Rodriguez-Leal, Noah Dukler, Gina Robitaille, Xuelin Wu, Jamie Kostyun, Lior Tal, Peipei Wang, Madelaine E. Bartlett, Yuval Eshed, Idan Efroni, Zachary B. Lippman

Issue&Volume: 2021-03-04

Abstract: Divergence of gene function is a hallmark of evolution, but assessing functional divergenceover deep time is not trivial. The few alleles available for cross-species studiesoften fail to expose the entire functional spectrum of genes, potentially obscuringdeeply conserved pleiotropic roles. Here, we explore the functional divergence ofWUSCHEL HOMEOBOX9 (WOX9), suggested to have species-specific roles in embryo and inflorescence development.Using a cis-regulatory editing drive system, we generate a comprehensive allelic series in tomato,which revealed hidden pleiotropic roles for WOX9. Analysis of accessible chromatin and conserved cis-regulatory sequences identifies the regions responsible for this pleiotropic activity,the functions of which are conserved in groundcherry, a tomato relative. Mimickingthese alleles in Arabidopsis, distantly related to tomato and groundcherry, reveals new inflorescence phenotypes,exposing a deeply conserved pleiotropy. We suggest that targeted cis-regulatory mutations can uncover conserved gene functions and reduce undesirable effectsin crop improvement.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.02.001

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00151-3