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Ali S, Abrar M, Hussain I, Batool F, Raza RZ, Khatoon H, Zoia M, Visel A, Shubin NH, Osterwalder M, Abbasi AA. Identification of ancestral gnathostome Gli3 enhancers with activity in mammals. Dev Growth Differ 2024; 66:75-88. [PMID: 37925606 PMCID: PMC10841732 DOI: 10.1111/dgd.12901] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2023] [Revised: 09/01/2023] [Accepted: 10/23/2023] [Indexed: 11/06/2023]
Abstract
Abnormal expression of the transcriptional regulator and hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway effector Gli3 is known to trigger congenital disease, most frequently affecting the central nervous system (CNS) and the limbs. Accurate delineation of the genomic cis-regulatory landscape controlling Gli3 transcription during embryonic development is critical for the interpretation of noncoding variants associated with congenital defects. Here, we employed a comparative genomic analysis on fish species with a slow rate of molecular evolution to identify seven previously unknown conserved noncoding elements (CNEs) in Gli3 intronic intervals (CNE15-21). Transgenic assays in zebrafish revealed that most of these elements drive activities in Gli3 expressing tissues, predominantly the fins, CNS, and the heart. Intersection of these CNEs with human disease associated SNPs identified CNE15 as a putative mammalian craniofacial enhancer, with conserved activity in vertebrates and potentially affected by mutation associated with human craniofacial morphology. Finally, comparative functional dissection of an appendage-specific CNE conserved in slowly evolving fish (elephant shark), but not in teleost (CNE14/hs1586) indicates co-option of limb specificity from other tissues prior to the divergence of amniotes and lobe-finned fish. These results uncover a novel subset of intronic Gli3 enhancers that arose in the common ancestor of gnathostomes and whose sequence components were likely gradually modified in other species during the process of evolutionary diversification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shahid Ali
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad Pakistan
- Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Muhammad Abrar
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad Pakistan
| | - Irfan Hussain
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad Pakistan
| | - Fatima Batool
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad Pakistan
| | - Rabail Zehra Raza
- Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Multidisciplinary Studies, National University of Medical Sciences Rawalpindi, Pakistan
| | - Hizran Khatoon
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad Pakistan
| | - Matteo Zoia
- Department for Biomedical Research (DBMR), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Axel Visel
- Environmental Genomics and System Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA 95343, USA
| | - Neil H. Shubin
- Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Marco Osterwalder
- Department for Biomedical Research (DBMR), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Department of Cardiology, Bern University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Amir Ali Abbasi
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad Pakistan
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Gisonno RA, Masson T, Ramella NA, Barrera EE, Romanowski V, Tricerri MA. Evolutionary and structural constraints influencing apolipoprotein A-I amyloid behavior. Proteins 2021; 90:258-269. [PMID: 34414600 DOI: 10.1002/prot.26217] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2021] [Revised: 07/27/2021] [Accepted: 08/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) has a key function in the reverse cholesterol transport. However, aggregation of apoA-I single point mutants can lead to hereditary amyloid pathology. Although several studies have tackled the biophysical and structural consequences introduced by these mutations, there is little information addressing the relationship between the evolutionary and structural features that contribute to the amyloid behavior of apoA-I. We combined evolutionary studies, in silico mutagenesis and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to provide a comprehensive analysis of the conservation and pathogenic role of the aggregation-prone regions (APRs) present in apoA-I. Sequence analysis demonstrated that among the four amyloidogenic regions described for human apoA-I, only two (APR1 and APR4) are evolutionary conserved across different species of Sarcopterygii. Moreover, stability analysis carried out with the FoldX engine showed that APR1 contributes to the marginal stability of apoA-I. Structural properties of full-length apoA-I models suggest that aggregation is avoided by placing APRs into highly packed and rigid portions of its native fold. Compared to silent variants extracted from the gnomAD database, the thermodynamic and pathogenic impact of amyloid mutations showed evidence of a higher destabilizing effect. MD simulations of the amyloid variant G26R evidenced the partial unfolding of the alpha-helix bundle with the concomitant exposure of APR1 to the solvent, suggesting an insight into the early steps involved in its aggregation. Our findings highlight APR1 as a relevant component for apoA-I structural integrity and emphasize a destabilizing effect of amyloid variants that leads to the exposure of this region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Romina A Gisonno
- Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata (INIBIOLP, CONICET-UNLP), Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina
| | - Tomas Masson
- Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Instituto de Biotecnología y Biología Molecular (IBBM, CONICET-UNLP), Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina
| | - Nahuel A Ramella
- Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata (INIBIOLP, CONICET-UNLP), Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina
| | - Exequiel E Barrera
- Group of Biomolecular Simulations, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Víctor Romanowski
- Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Instituto de Biotecnología y Biología Molecular (IBBM, CONICET-UNLP), Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina
| | - M Alejandra Tricerri
- Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata (INIBIOLP, CONICET-UNLP), Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina
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Ali S, Arif I, Iqbal A, Hussain I, Abrar M, Khan MR, Shubin N, Abbasi AA. Comparative genomic analysis of human GLI2 locus using slowly evolving fish revealed the ancestral gnathostome set of early developmental enhancers. Dev Dyn 2021; 250:669-683. [PMID: 33381902 PMCID: PMC9292287 DOI: 10.1002/dvdy.291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2020] [Revised: 12/18/2020] [Accepted: 12/19/2020] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Background The zinc finger‐containing transcription factor Gli2, is a key mediator of Hedgehog (Hh) signaling and participates in embryonic patterning of various organs including the central nervous system (CNS) and limbs. Abnormal expression of Gli2 can impede the transcription of Hh target genes through disruption of proper balance between Gli2 and Gli3 functions. Therefore, delineation of enhancers that are required for complementary roles of Glis would allow the interrogation of those pathogenic variants that cause gene dysregulation, and a corresponding abnormal phenotype. Previously, we reported tissue‐specific enhancers for Gli family including Gli2 through direct tetrapod‐teleost comparisons. Results Here, we employed the sequence alignments of slowly evolving spotted gar and elephant shark and have identified six novel conserved noncoding elements in human GLI2 containing locus. Zebrafish‐based transgenic assays revealed that combined action of these autonomous CNEs reflects many aspects of Gli2 specific endogenous transcriptional activity, including CNS and pectoral fins. Conclusion Taken together with our previous findings, this study suggests that Hh‐signaling controlled deployment of Gli2 activity in embryonic patterning arose in the common ancestor of gnathostomes. These GLI2 specific cis‐regulatory modules will help to identify DNA variants that probably reside outside of coding intervals and are associated with congenital anomalies. We performed a phylogenetic footprint analyses of human GLI2 containing locus by incorporating relatively slowly evolving gar and elephant shark genomes and have identified multiple novel conserved non‐coding elements (CNEs) that were not predicted by direct human‐teleostcomparisons. Comparative analyses suggest that majority of the GLI2 associated CNEs identified in the present data and reported previously arose in the common ancestor of gnathostomes but lost in teleosts, presumably because of fast teleost sequence evolution. Functional testing of GLI2 associated CNEs by employing zebrafish based transgenic reporter assays revealed their tissue specific cis‐regulatory potential that corresponds with the results based on whole‐mount in situ hybridization analysis of gli2 mRNA in zebrafish. The delineated set of GLI2 associated enhancers can be further interrogated to determine their role in canonical Hh signaling, gene dysregulation, and a corresponding congenital anomaly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shahid Ali
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i- Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Irum Arif
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i- Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Ayesha Iqbal
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i- Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Irfan Hussain
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i- Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Muhammad Abrar
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i- Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Muhammad Ramzan Khan
- National Institute for Genomics and Advanced Biotechnology, National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Neil Shubin
- Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Amir Ali Abbasi
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i- Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
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Nawaz MS, Asghar R, Pervaiz N, Ali S, Hussain I, Xing P, Bao Y, Abbasi AA. Molecular evolutionary and structural analysis of human UCHL1 gene demonstrates the relevant role of intragenic epistasis in Parkinson's disease and other neurological disorders. BMC Evol Biol 2020; 20:130. [PMID: 33028204 PMCID: PMC7542113 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-020-01684-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2020] [Accepted: 09/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. PD associated human UCHL1 (Ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1) gene belongs to the family of deubiquitinases and is known to be highly expressed in neurons (1–2% in soluble form). Several functions of UCHL1 have been proposed including ubiquitin hydrolyze activity, ubiquitin ligase activity and stabilization of the mono-ubiquitin. Mutations in human UCHL1 gene have been associated with PD and other neurodegenerative disorders. The present study aims to decipher the sequence evolutionary pattern and structural dynamics of UCHL1. Furthermore, structural and interactional analysis of UCHL1 was performed to help elucidate the pathogenesis of PD. Results The phylogenetic tree topology suggests that the UCHL1 gene had originated in early gnathostome evolutionary history. Evolutionary rate analysis of orthologous sequences reveals strong purifying selection on UCHL1. Comparative structural analysis of UCHL1 pinpoints an important protein segment spanning amino acid residues 32 to 39 within secretion site with crucial implications in evolution and PD pathogenesis through a well known phenomenon called intragenic epistasis. Identified critical protein segment appears to play an indispensable role in protein stability, proper protein conformation as well as harboring critical interaction sites. Conclusions Conclusively, the critical protein segment of UCHL1 identified in the present study not only demonstrates the relevant role of intraprotein conformational epistasis in the pathophysiology of PD but also offers a novel therapeutic target for the disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muhammad Saqib Nawaz
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan
| | - Razia Asghar
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan
| | - Nashaiman Pervaiz
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan
| | - Shahid Ali
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan
| | - Irfan Hussain
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan
| | - Peiqi Xing
- National Genomics Data Center & CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing, 100101, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Yiming Bao
- National Genomics Data Center & CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing, 100101, China. .,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
| | - Amir Ali Abbasi
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Program of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan.
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Functional conserved non-coding elements among tunicates and chordates. Dev Biol 2019; 448:101-110. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2018.12.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2018] [Revised: 12/10/2018] [Accepted: 12/11/2018] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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Zehra R, Abbasi AA. Homo sapiens-Specific Binding Site Variants within Brain Exclusive Enhancers Are Subject to Accelerated Divergence across Human Population. Genome Biol Evol 2018; 10:956-966. [PMID: 29608725 PMCID: PMC5952923 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evy052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/06/2018] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Empirical assessments of human accelerated noncoding DNA frgaments have delineated presence of many cis-regulatory elements. Enhancers make up an important category of such accelerated cis-regulatory elements that efficiently control the spatiotemporal expression of many developmental genes. Establishing plausible reasons for accelerated enhancer sequence divergence in Homo sapiens has been termed significant in various previously published studies. This acceleration by including closely related primates and archaic human data has the potential to open up evolutionary avenues for deducing present-day brain structure. This study relied on empirically confirmed brain exclusive enhancers to avoid any misjudgments about their regulatory status and categorized among them a subset of enhancers with an exceptionally accelerated rate of lineage specific divergence in humans. In this assorted set, 13 distinct transcription factor binding sites were located that possessed unique existence in humans. Three of 13 such sites belonging to transcription factors SOX2, RUNX1/3, and FOS/JUND possessed single nucleotide variants that made them unique to H. sapiens upon comparisons with Neandertal and Denisovan orthologous sequences. These variants modifying the binding sites in modern human lineage were further substantiated as single nucleotide polymorphisms via exploiting 1000 Genomes Project Phase3 data. Long range haplotype based tests laid out evidence of positive selection to be governing in African population on two of the modern human motif modifying alleles with strongest results for SOX2 binding site. In sum, our study acknowledges acceleration in noncoding regulatory landscape of the genome and highlights functional parts within it to have undergone accelerated divergence in present-day human population.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Amir Ali Abbasi
- National Center for Bioinformatics, Programme of Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
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Tatarinova TV, Chekalin E, Nikolsky Y, Bruskin S, Chebotarov D, McNally KL, Alexandrov N. Nucleotide diversity analysis highlights functionally important genomic regions. Sci Rep 2016; 6:35730. [PMID: 27774999 PMCID: PMC5075931 DOI: 10.1038/srep35730] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2016] [Accepted: 09/30/2016] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
We analyzed functionality and relative distribution of genetic variants across the complete Oryza sativa genome, using the 40 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) dataset from the 3,000 Rice Genomes Project (http://snp-seek.irri.org), the largest and highest density SNP collection for any higher plant. We have shown that the DNA-binding transcription factors (TFs) are the most conserved group of genes, whereas kinases and membrane-localized transporters are the most variable ones. TFs may be conserved because they belong to some of the most connected regulatory hubs that modulate transcription of vast downstream gene networks, whereas signaling kinases and transporters need to adapt rapidly to changing environmental conditions. In general, the observed profound patterns of nucleotide variability reveal functionally important genomic regions. As expected, nucleotide diversity is much higher in intergenic regions than within gene bodies (regions spanning gene models), and protein-coding sequences are more conserved than untranslated gene regions. We have observed a sharp decline in nucleotide diversity that begins at about 250 nucleotides upstream of the transcription start and reaches minimal diversity exactly at the transcription start. We found the transcription termination sites to have remarkably symmetrical patterns of SNP density, implying presence of functional sites near transcription termination. Also, nucleotide diversity was significantly lower near 3′ UTRs, the area rich with regulatory regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tatiana V Tatarinova
- Center for Personalized Medicine and Spatial Sciences Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation
| | | | - Yuri Nikolsky
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Moscow, Russia.,F1 Genomics, San Diego, CA, USA.,School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, VA, USA
| | | | - Dmitry Chebotarov
- International Rice Research Institute, Los Baños, Laguna 4031, Philippines
| | - Kenneth L McNally
- International Rice Research Institute, Los Baños, Laguna 4031, Philippines
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Yue JX, Kozmikova I, Ono H, Nossa CW, Kozmik Z, Putnam NH, Yu JK, Holland LZ. Conserved Noncoding Elements in the Most Distant Genera of Cephalochordates: The Goldilocks Principle. Genome Biol Evol 2016; 8:2387-405. [PMID: 27412606 PMCID: PMC5010895 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evw158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Cephalochordates, the sister group of vertebrates + tunicates, are evolving particularly slowly. Therefore, genome comparisons between two congeners of Branchiostoma revealed so many conserved noncoding elements (CNEs), that it was not clear how many are functional regulatory elements. To more effectively identify CNEs with potential regulatory functions, we compared noncoding sequences of genomes of the most phylogenetically distant cephalochordate genera, Asymmetron and Branchiostoma, which diverged approximately 120-160 million years ago. We found 113,070 noncoding elements conserved between the two species, amounting to 3.3% of the genome. The genomic distribution, target gene ontology, and enriched motifs of these CNEs all suggest that many of them are probably cis-regulatory elements. More than 90% of previously verified amphioxus regulatory elements were re-captured in this study. A search of the cephalochordate CNEs around 50 developmental genes in several vertebrate genomes revealed eight CNEs conserved between cephalochordates and vertebrates, indicating sequence conservation over >500 million years of divergence. The function of five CNEs was tested in reporter assays in zebrafish, and one was also tested in amphioxus. All five CNEs proved to be tissue-specific enhancers. Taken together, these findings indicate that even though Branchiostoma and Asymmetron are distantly related, as they are evolving slowly, comparisons between them are likely optimal for identifying most of their tissue-specific cis-regulatory elements laying the foundation for functional characterizations and a better understanding of the evolution of developmental regulation in cephalochordates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia-Xing Yue
- Biosciences at Rice, Rice University, Houston, Texas Present address: Institute for Research on Cancer and Aging, Nice (IRCAN), CNRS UMR 7284, INSERM U1081, Nice 06107 France
| | - Iryna Kozmikova
- Department of Transcriptional Regulation, Institute of Molecular Genetics, Prague 14220, Czech Republic
| | - Hiroki Ono
- Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Carlos W Nossa
- Biosciences at Rice, Rice University, Houston, Texas Present address: Gene by Gene Ltd., Houston, TX 77008
| | - Zbynek Kozmik
- Department of Transcriptional Regulation, Institute of Molecular Genetics, Prague 14220, Czech Republic
| | - Nicholas H Putnam
- Biosciences at Rice, Rice University, Houston, Texas Present address: Dovetail Genomics, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
| | - Jr-Kai Yu
- Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Linda Z Holland
- Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, La Jolla, California
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