Chromosomal clustering of muscle-expressed genes in Caenorhabditis elegans
Chromosomal clustering of muscle-expressed genes in Caenorhabditis elegans
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DOI：
10.1038/nature01012
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发表时间：
2002-08-29
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Kim, SK
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Roy, PJ;Stuart, JM;Kim, SK
染色体分为开放染色质区域和封闭染色质区域，开放染色质区域基因有可能表达，封闭染色质区域基因不表达（1）。开放染色质结构域的经典例子包括果蝇多线染色体上的“蓬松”和灯刷染色体上的延伸环（2，3）。如果多个基因通常从单个开放的染色质结构域一起表达，则共表达基因沿染色体的位置沿着将呈现成簇。为了研究共表达基因是否成簇，我们研究了秀丽隐杆线虫在第一幼虫期肌肉中表达的基因的染色体位置。在这里，我们表明，在C。线虫沿着染色体以2-5个沿着的组聚集，这表明来自染色质结构域的表达可以延伸到几个基因上。这些观察结果揭示了基因组结构的高级组织，其中基因沿着染色体的顺序与它们在特定组织中的表达相关。
Chromosomes are divided into domains of open chromatin, where genes have the potential to be expressed, and domains of closed chromatin, where genes are not expressed(1). Classic examples of open chromatin domains include 'puffs' on polytene chromosomes in Drosophila and extended loops from lampbrush chromosomes(2,3). If multiple genes were typically expressed together from a single open chromatin domain, the position of co-expressed genes along the chromosomes would appear clustered. To investigate whether co-expressed genes are clustered, we examined the chromosomal positions of the genes expressed in muscle of Caenorhabditis elegans at the first larval stage. Here we show that co-expressed genes in C. elegans are clustered in groups of 2-5 along the chromosomes, suggesting that expression from a chromatin domain can extend over several genes. These observations reveal a higher-order organization of the structure of the genome, in which the order of genes along the chromosome is correlated with their expression in specific tissues.