Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về sinh học được đăng trên tạp chí sinh học Journal of Biology đề tài: Evidence for large domains of similarly expressed genes in the Drosophila genome. | J. Biol. Journal of Biology BioMed Central Research article Evidence for large domains of similarly expressed genes in the Drosophila genome Paul T Spellman and Gerald M Rubin Address Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Molecular and Cell Biology University of California Berkeley CA 94720-3400 USA. Correspondence Paul T Spellman. E-mail spellman@ Published 18 June 2002 Received 28 March 2002 Revised 7 May 2002 Journal of Biology 2002 1 5 J IS Accepted 17 May 2002 The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at http content 1 1 5 2002 Spellman and Rubin licensee BioMed Central Ltd ISSN 1475-4924 Abstract Background Transcriptional regulation in eukaryotes generally operates at the level of individual genes. Regulation of sets of adjacent genes by mechanisms operating at the level of chromosomal domains has been demonstrated in a number of cases but the fraction of genes in the genome subject to regulation at this level is unknown. Results Drosophila gene-expression profiles that were determined from over 80 experimental conditions using high-density oligonucleotide microarrays were searched for groups of adjacent genes that show similar expression profiles. We found about 200 groups of adjacent and similarly expressed genes each having between 10 and 30 members together these groups account for over 20 of assayed genes. Each group covers between 20 and 200 kilobase pairs of genomic sequence with a mean group size of about 100 kilobase pairs. Groups do not appear to show any correlation with polytene banding patterns or other known chromosomal structures nor were genes within groups functionally related to one another. Conclusions Groups of adjacent and co-regulated genes that are not otherwise functionally related in any obvious way can be identified by expression profiling in Drosophila. The mechanism underlying this phenomenon is not yet known. Background The regulation of gene expression is
