The birth of a new gene cluster in mammalian e volution: exciting origin, intriguing shared regulation, (un)known functions, and implications in human disease

Abstract

Resumen del póster presentado al Joint Congress of the Spanish Societies of Genetics, Cell Biology and Developmental Biology, celebrado en Gijón del 24 al 27 de octubre de 2017.-- et al.In recent years it is becoming clear that genome organisation and architecture made an insightful contribution to gene regulation during embryonic development, being in some cases responsible for the maintenance of gene clusters, through genes being linked by sharing of regulatory sequences, or by using global cluster regulatory landscapes. These genome architectures and its sudden changes may well be linked to morphological evolution, by changing networks of developmental regulatory genes. Among those phenomena, the sudden birth of new gene clusters has been scarcely reported. We wish here to introduce our latest research in these fields; the BGW gene cluster (name to be changed). The cluster suddenly appeared at the origin of Eutherian Mammals, and the initial genes we analysed, ArmcX 1-6, play a key role in mitochondrial dynamics in neurons. Surprisingly, the cluster encompasses not six, but nearly 20 genes poorly analysed. We will show here the true origin of this cluster, Also, we will analyse its maintenance in most eutherian mammals, explore conserved regulatory motifs shared by these genes, and show that they are expressed during mouse embryonic development, namely but not solely in the central nervous system. Finally, as some of the cluster genes are involved in the control of proliferation, apoptosis and neuronal differentiation, we will hypothesise that the origin of the cluster was correlated to the increase in complexity of the central nervous system of Eutherian mammals. CRISP-R transgenic mice of one of the genes excitingly suggest it may be implicated in human autism.Peer Reviewe