生物体基因组中除了编码序列之外,还存在大量的非编码调控序列。比较基因组学研究发现:脊椎动物、尾索动物、头索动物、果蝇、线虫等基因组中存在保守的非编码调控序列。这些非编码保守元件通常分布在与转录调控发育相关的基因上下游区域,作为基因调控网络核心的一部分,常常在基因表达过程中扮演转录增强子的角色。文章总结了近年来有关后生动物非编码保守元件的发现和主要特点,并进一步就非编码保守元件在大规模基因组倍增之后的演化及其在生物躯体图式进化过程中的影响进行了综述。
In addition to protein coding sequence, the organism genome contains a significant amount of regulatory DNA. Comparative genomics reveals that the organism genomes of vertebrates, tunicate, cephalochordate, flies, and nematodes contain cis-regulatory elements with highly conserved non-coding elements (CNEs). CNEs that cluster around trans-dev genes are part of core gene regulatory networks (GRNs), and usually, they can act as transcriptional enhancers. In this review, we described the identification of CNEs and summarized their key properties across the metazoans, and then discussed the evolution of CNEs after large-scale genome duplication events and the role of CNEs in the evolution of animal body plan.