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Balancing growth and immunity of potato by humidity-dependent expression of a late blight resistance gene.

Inducible expression of resistance genes is an effective approach to balance plant growth and immunity, thus facilitating the development of disease-resistant crop cultivars. While pathogen-responsive and immunity-related promoters have been adopted for this purpose, alternative design strategies remain to be explored. High relative humidity (RH) has been recognized as a crucial permissive environmental condition for the occurrence of devastating plant diseases including tomato and potato late blight. Here, we identified humidity-activated cis-regulatory elements (HAEs) in Solanum lycopersicum through an integrative analysis of transcriptomics and chromatin accessibility data. Sequence homology-inferred HAEs in S. tuberosum can predict humidity-elicited changes in downstream gene expression. Transgenic S. tuberosum lines expressing a late blight resistance gene driven by an artificial humidity-inducible promoter containing a natural S. tuberosum HAE were generated. These transgenic lines exhibited comparable late blight resistance levels to the lines overexpressing the same resistance gene in controlled zoospore inoculation bioassays, while avoiding growth suppression and tuber yield penalties in common garden experiments. Our findings highlight the importance of plant cis-regulatory elements in the transcriptional responses to high RH and provide a proof-of-concept for a humidity-inducible environment-responsive resistance gene deployment strategy to engineer disease-resistant crop cultivars without compromising growth and yield.

Phytophthora infestans

Experimental evolution reveals genetic routes for adaptive loss of the antibacterial type VI secretion system.

The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a contractile nanomachine used by Gram-negative bacteria to deliver effector proteins into target cells, contributing to both interbacterial competition and pathogenesis. Although T6SS gene clusters are present in recently isolated commensal and pathogenic Escherichia coli strains, they are absent from classical laboratory strains that have been propagated for decades in pure cultures, suggesting that T6SS can be lost in the absence of competition. Here, we combined experimental evolution with whole-genome sequencing to track the fate of the enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) Sci1 T6SS during competition with either T6SS-susceptible or T6SS-immune bacteria. After ∼640 generations, T6SS activity was largely maintained during competition with T6SS-susceptible bacteria, whereas ∼90% of clones evolved with T6SS-immune bacteria lost or attenuated T6SS activity through diverse mutations within the sci1 promoter, essential T6SS structural genes, or the rfaH transcriptional antiterminator. We identified two RfaH-binding ops elements within the sci1 cluster, revealing antitermination as a regulatory element of EAEC T6SS transcription, which is conserved among Enterobacteriaceae. Our findings highlight how experimental evolution can reveal the selective forces shaping T6SS maintenance and identify new regulatory components controlling its activity.

Journal Article

Mechanisms of Globin Gene Regulation in Mammals.

Studies of globin gene clusters have established many paradigms of gene regulation. This review focuses on the α- and β-globin gene clusters of humans and mice, summarizing important insights from high-throughput biochemical assays and directed genetic dissections and emphasizing similarities across the types of gene clusters and between species. The overall arrangements and architectures are similar, with each gene cluster being localized within a topologically constrained unit of chromatin containing a multicomponent enhancer (i.e., a locus control region) and other regulatory elements bound by a similar set of transcription factors and coactivators. Differential expression of the globin genes within each cluster during ontogeny is associated with changes in contacts with the locus control region and involves the action of gene-specific repressors. Detailed study of the fetal β-like HBG1 and HBG2 globin genes has revealed a remarkable diversity of regulatory pathways that provide candidates for therapeutic approaches to reactivate these genes for β-hemoglobinopathies.

Animals

Clocking out and letting go to unleash green biotech applications in a photosynthetic host.

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic bacteria whose gene expression patterns are globally regulated by their circadian (daily) clocks. Due to their ability to use sunlight as their energy source, they are also attractive hosts for "green" production of pharmaceuticals, renewable fuels, and chemicals. However, despite the application of traditional genetic tools such as the identification of strong promoters to enhance the expression of heterologous genes, cyanobacteria have lagged behind other microorganisms such as Escherichia coli and yeast as economically efficient cell factories. The previous approaches have ignored large-scale constraints within cyanobacterial metabolic networks on transcription, predominantly the pervasive control of gene expression by the circadian (daily) clock. Here, we show that reprogramming gene expression by releasing circadian repressor elements in the transcriptional regulatory pathways coupled with inactivation of the central oscillating mechanism enables a dramatic enhancement of expression in cyanobacteria of heterologous genes encoding both catalytically active enzymes and polypeptides of biomedical significance.

Photosynthesis

Deep learning guided programmable design of Escherichia coli core promoters from sequence architecture to strength control.

Core promoters are essential regulatory elements that control transcription initiation, but accurately predicting and designing their strength remains challenging due to complex sequence-function relationships and the limited generalizability of existing AI-based approaches. To address this, we developed a modular platform integrating rational library design, predictive modelling, and generative optimization into a closed-loop workflow for end-to-end core promoter engineering. Conserved and spacer region of core promoters exert distinct effects on transcriptional strength, with the former driving large-scale variation and the latter enabling finer gradation. Based on this insight, Mutation-Barcoding-Reverse Sequencing approach was used and constructed a synthetic promoter library comprising 112 955 variants with minimal redundancy and a 16 226-fold expression range. A Transformer-based model trained on this dataset achieved a Pearson correlation of 0.87 with experimentally measured promoter strengths. When combined with a conditional diffusion model, the system enabled de novo generation of promoter sequences with defined strengths, achieving a design-to-measurement correlation of 0.95 and maintaining high accuracy (R = 0.93) across varied sequence contexts. The designed promoters consistently preserved their intended strength gradients, demonstrating robust plug-and-play functionality. This work establishes a scalable and extensible platform (www.yudenglab.com) for deep learning-guided programmable design of Escherichia coli core promoters, enabling precise transcriptional control.

Promoter Regions, Genetic

Developmental patterning of adipose tissue by abd-A and Abd-B homeotic genes in Drosophila melanogaster.

The Bithorax Complex (BX-C) homeobox proteins specify segmental identities along the anterior-posterior axis during Drosophila embryogenesis. Differential expression of the BX-C genes abd-A and Abd-B distinguishes abdominal from thoracic adipocytes, yet the mechanism regulating this heterogeneity remains poorly understood. Here, we identify cis-regulatory elements (CREs) and transcription factors that direct abdominal-specific expression of abd-A and Abd-B in the larval fat body. Fine-mapping analyses identified a 627-bp CRE within the Abd-B locus and a ~6-kb CRE within the abd-A locus sufficient to drive heterogeneous expression. Yeast one-hybrid screening combined with functional analyses identified Lola, Lolal, and Combgap as key repressors of Abd-B, whereas Piragua (Prg) and Seven up (Svp) function as transcriptional activators, indicating that adipocyte heterogeneity in postembryonic adipose tissue is actively regulated. In turn, lola and prg are repressed by Abd-B, whereas lolal and svp are activated, forming a feedback circuit further modulated by Wnt signaling, which promotes lola and lolal expression while repressing svp. CUT&RUN analyses suggest that these interactions are direct, with dTCF/Pan and Abd-B occupancy detected at target loci. Together, our findings define a transcriptional circuit that regulates Abd-B gene transcription to pattern adipose tissue and may establish the developmental basis of fat depot specialization.

Abd-B

Noncoding transcription controls the developmental dynamics of long-range gene regulation.

The genomic regions regulating gene expression are often themselves transcribed into a variety of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). However, the regulatory roles of this noncoding transcription remain largely unknown. By using live imaging, we reveal that the sequential transcription of ncRNAs emanating from distinct regulatory elements underlies gene activation in Drosophila embryos. Single-allele co-visualization uncovers that optimal gene activation is achieved by only moderate levels of enhancer activity. Disrupting enhancer-associated ncRNAs causes precocious gene activation, providing evidence that ncRNAs control the timing of gene expression in development. We further show that enhancer transcription can regulate long-range interactions within complex regulatory landscapes. We propose that ncRNAs locally modulate regulatory element activity in cis to shape genome organization and orchestrate the temporal control of gene expression in development.

Journal Article

Plant cis-regulatory grammar: Decoding the multidimensional code of transcriptional regulation for programmable crop engineering.

Cis-regulatory elements (CREs) orchestrate the spatiotemporal precision of gene expression that underlies plant development, adaptation, and domestication. Decoding the cis-regulatory grammar of plant genomes remains a central challenge in modern biology, with profound implications for programmable crop engineering. Here, recent conceptual and technological advances are synthesized to reshape our understanding of plant CREs. This review first argues that CRE function is not only an intrinsic property of DNA sequence alone but also emerges from a multidimensional context, including chromatin accessibility, histone modifications, three-dimensional genome topology, and cell type-specific regulatory landscapes. Furthermore, the convergence of single-cell epigenomics, high-throughput functional assays, and CRISPR-based dissection has begun to unravel this contextual grammar, revealing the computational principles governing transcriptional regulation. Critically, we propose that artificial intelligence (AI) platforms are catalyzing an ongoing transition from descriptive discovery to predictive engineering, wherein these platforms outperform natural evolution in designing synthetic CREs. Finally, a roadmap is outlined toward a plant regulatory grammar foundation model, which will enable truly predictive engineering of gene expression when fine-tuned for specific tasks. Collectively, the integration of single-cell resolution maps, precise genome editing, AI-driven design, and regulatory-compliant delivery systems promises to transform our ability to reprogram plant gene regulation for next-generation agriculture, bridging the gap between foundational regulatory biology and tangible crop improvement.

artificial intelligence

Dynamic and non-additive gene regulation shapes maize responses to simultaneous salt and cold stress.

Salt and cold stresses often occur together in nature and severely impact crop productivity, yet their transcriptional regulation remains poorly understood. Here, we conducted a time-series transcriptomic analysis of maize under salt, cold, and their combination at 0, 6, 12, and 24 h. Differential expression analysis revealed dynamic, condition-specific gene responses grouped into eight distinct temporal patterns. Promoter motif analysis of genes within each pattern identified 5-39 significantly enriched motifs, with over 40% lacking known counterparts, suggesting the involvement of previously uncharacterized cis-regulatory elements in stress-responsive transcriptional regulation. By comparing combined stress responses to the sum of single-stress effects, we found that about 74% of DEGs showed non-additive patterns, suggesting that combined stress triggers a distinct transcriptional program. Evolutionary analysis showed that additive DEGs tend to be more recently evolved, subject to weaker purifying selection, and enriched in transposed duplications, contrasting with the stronger constraint observed in non-additive DEGs. WGCNA identified 24 co-expression modules, among which 65 hub DEGs were detected in modules significantly correlated with specific stress conditions. Furthermore, we reconstructed 228, 20, and 200 sequential transcription factor cascades spanning 6 h, 12 h, and 24 h under cold, salt, and combined stress, respectively, with no cascade shared across all three conditions. Together, these results reveal that maize responses to combined salt and cold stress are largely non-additive and temporally dynamic, with distinct evolutionary patterns underlying different response types, offering insights and candidate regulators for enhancing crop stress resilience.

Zea mays

Genome-Wide Characterization of Calmodulin-Binding Transcription Activators Genes in Aegilops tauschii.

Calcium signaling plays a central role in plant adaptation to abiotic stresses and is primarily mediated by calmodulin and its associated transcription factors. Calmodulin-binding transcription activators (CAMTAs) regulate stress-responsive gene expression, but their characteristics and functions remain largely unexplored in Aegilops tauschii Coss., the D-genome progenitor of bread wheat. In this study, a genome-wide identification and characterization of the CAMTA gene family was performed, followed by phylogenetic, structural, conserved domain, promoter cis-element, and expression analyses under drought stress. Five AetCAMTA genes were identified and classified into three phylogenetic groups. All proteins contained conserved CG-1 DNA-binding, ankyrin repeat (ANK), and IQ calmodulin-binding domains and exhibited similar exon-intron organization. Promoter analysis revealed abundant hormone- and stress-responsive cis-elements, particularly abscisic acid-responsive element (ABRE) and drought-responsive MYB-binding site (MBS) motifs, suggesting their involvement in drought-responsive signaling. Quantitative RT-PCR showed genotype- and stress-dependent expression patterns, with the drought-tolerant ecotype (TN-01-1747) exhibiting higher expression of AetCAMTA1, AetCAMTA2, and AetCAMTA3 than the drought-sensitive ecotype (TN-01-1559) under moderate drought stress. These findings provide new insights into the evolutionary and functional characteristics of AetCAMTA genes and identify promising candidates for improving drought tolerance in wheat through molecular breeding and biotechnological approaches.

Gene Expression Regulation, Plant

Integrative Genomic, Transcriptomic and Epigenomic Analysis Reveals cis-regulatory Contributions to High-altitude Adaptation in Tibetan Pigs.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, characterized by its extreme environmental conditions, presents significant challenges to life, making it an ideal region for studying adaptation and evolution. Tibetan pigs, known for their high genetic diversity and exceptional adaptability to high altitudes, serve as excellent models for investigating high-altitude adaptation. While previous studies have extensively identified genetic determinants associated with high-altitude adaptation, the molecular mechanisms, particularly cis-regulatory patterns, remain poorly understood. Here, we conducted a selective sweep analysis using 484 genomes from Chinese and Western pig breeds across various altitudes, revealing 38.56 Mb of genomic regions under selection in Tibetan pigs. Enrichment analysis identified the lung as the primary functional tissue involved in high-altitude adaptation, supported by tissue-specific transcriptional and regulatory patterns observed between Tibetan and Meishan pigs (low altitude). By integrating genomic, RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, and H3K27ac HiChIP data, we constructed comprehensive enhancer-promoter regulatory maps of candidate genes and pinpointed promising genetic determinants associated with high-altitude adaptation, including SNPs in EPAS1, KLF13, SPRED1, and CFD. These loci were predicted to influence chromatin accessibility and the interactions of regulatory elements, with altered binding strength of relevant transcription factors. Further in vitro experiments confirmed that these loci function as allele-specific enhancers, modulating the expression of target genes. Our findings elucidate the regulatory basis of high-altitude adaptation in Tibetan pigs and provide valuable insights for exploring hypoxia-related diseases in livestock and humans.

Animals

Non-coding single-nucleotide and structural variants affecting the EYS putative promoter cause autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa.

PURPOSE: Variants in untranslated genomic regions are difficult to identify as pathogenic but are capable of causing disease by interfering with gene expression. This study aimed to characterize the effect of variants identified in the 5'-untranslated region of EYS in patients with autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa (RP). METHODS: Variant screening included gene panels, Sanger, exome, and genome sequencing. Functional validation included an electrophoretic mobility shift assay and various luciferase assays. RESULTS: Patients with RP from 6 EYS biallelic Arab-Muslim families harbored a 5' noncoding EYS variant, c.-453G>T, and 4 harbored a structural variant affecting the 5' noncoding exons. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay analysis revealed an effect on binding of transcription factors for c.-453G>T and a neighboring variant c.-454G>T. Dual luciferase assays using overexpression of various transcription factors showed distinct effects on expression. c.-453G>T was associated with higher luciferase expression with CRX overexpression and c.-454G>C with OTX2 overexpression. In addition, the 2 variants were found to influence translation by affecting upstream initiation codons. Interestingly, visual function of EYS RP patients who harbor c.-453G>T are better than those with biallelic null EYS variants. CONCLUSION: Our analysis revealed both single-nucleotide and structural variants in the EYS promoter as the cause of autosomal recessive RP. These variants may affect EYS expression via a dual mechanism by altering transcription factor binding affinity at the EYS promoter and by affecting upstream open reading frames.

Humans

Transposable Element-Mediated Cis-Regulation Drives the Evolution of dmrt1 as a Candidate Master Sex-Determining Gene in Black Carp.

Sex determination in vertebrates exhibits remarkable evolutionary plasticity, with diverse mechanisms and master sex-determining (MSD) genes arising independently across lineages. Among these, dmrt1, a dosage-sensitive gene, has repeatedly been recruited as an MSD gene through gene duplication or allelic diversification. However, the biochemical basis of such evolutionary transitions, particularly those driven by allelic diversification, remains largely unexplored. Here, we generated haplotype-resolved genome assemblies for both XX and XY black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) and identified a ∼40-kb region on chromosome 4, containing only dmrt1, as the candidate sex-determining locus. We discovered two Y-specific insertions in the dmrt1 promoter: a 13.4-kb highly repetitive element and an 11-bp motif. Functional assays revealed that these insertions act as enhancer and a promoter element, respectively, driving early, allele-specific upregulation of dmrt1 prior to gonadal differentiation. Notably, the 13.4-kb insertion contains transposable elements (TEs) functioning as cis-regulatory modules with transcription factor binding sites that mediate Y-specific activation. Our findings reveal a TE-mediated regulatory innovation that promoted dmrt1's evolution as a male-determining gene via allelic diversification, providing new insights into how mobile genetic elements drive the origin and diversification of sex-determining systems in vertebrates.

Animals

Genome-wide characterization of the tomato PERK gene family and its expression profiling under abiotic stresses.

UNLABELLED: This study presents the first systematic genome-wide characterization of the proline-rich extensin-like receptor kinases (PERK) gene family in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and their transcriptional responses under abiotic stresses. Using the latest SL4.0/ITAG4.0 genome assembly, we identified six SlPERK genes, all harboring the conserved Ser/Thr protein kinase domain. Evolutionary and structural analyses revealed strong purifying selection (Ka/Ks&#x2009;<&#x2009;1), distinct exon-intron organizations, and the presence of stress- and hormone-responsive cis-regulatory elements in their promoters. Furthermore, post-transcriptional regulation by 57 miRNAs and complex protein-protein interaction networks were predicted. To validate their stress-responsive roles, two tomato cultivars (GMOTL-1 and Roma) were subjected to cold, heat, and salinity treatments. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed cultivar-specific expression dynamics: SlPERK4 exhibited strong transient induction under cold and heat stress, while SlPERK6 was highly responsive to salinity. Notably, the GMOTL-1 cultivar displayed significantly higher and broader stress-responsive expression profiles compared to Roma, indicating a potential role of these SlPERK genes in cultivar-specific stress tolerance. These findings provide a comprehensive genomic resource and establish a critical foundation for the functional validation and molecular breeding for stress-resilience tomato cultivars. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-026-05044-y.

Abiotic stress

Interpretable data integration for single-cell and spatial multi-omics.

Integrating single-cell or spatial transcriptomic and epigenomic data enables scrutinizing the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms controlling cell fate. Current integration methods usually align multi-omics data into a shared latent space but fail to reveal the underlying connections between genes and regulatory elements. The correlation- or regression-based regulatory inference methods cannot dissect different transcriptional regulation codes for cells under different spatial and temporal states. To address both problems, we develop a feature-guided optimal transport (FGOT) method, which simultaneously uncovers cellular heterogeneity and their associated transcriptional regulatory links. FGOT also provides post hoc interpretability for existing integration methods. FGOT is applicable for paired/unpaired single-cell multi-omics data and paired spatial multi-omics data. Benchmarking and validating via histone modification data or three-dimensional (3D) genomics data show good robustness and accuracy in integration and inference of regulatory links. The method allows systematic screening of cell-state and spatial-location-specific regulatory elements in diseases at the single-cell level. A record of this paper's transparent peer review process is included in the supplemental information.

Single-Cell Analysis

Expanded Chromatin Accessibility Mapping Explains Genetic Variation Associated with Complex Traits in Liver.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified thousands of loci associated with a variety of common, complex human traits. Recent efforts have focused on characterizing chromatin accessibility to discover regulatory elements that modify the expression of nearby genes, suggesting that trait associations are mediated through changes in gene regulation. Genetic variants associated with differences in chromatin accessibility, known as chromatin accessibility quantitative trait loci (caQTLs), are established contributors to gene expression differences, providing mechanistic hypotheses for signals identified by GWAS. Using the assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with sequencing (ATAC-seq), we assessed chromatin accessibility in 189 diverse human liver samples, identifying over two million accessible chromatin regions enriched for gene regulatory features and, in 175 of these samples, over 14,000 caQTLs. Focusing subsequently on liver-relevant complex traits, we obtained publicly available blood lipids GWAS data and identified 157 loci where caQTLs, expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs), and GWAS signals colocalized. This generated specific molecular hypotheses about regulatory elements, affected genes, and, in some cases, implicated transcription factors. Finally, we enumerated the set of blood lipid trait signals that lack an obvious proposed mechanism beyond catalogs of liver caQTLs and eQTLs. After integrating 10 multi-omic QTL regulatory mechanism datasets whilst considering limitations in statistical power, we found that approximately 20% of blood lipid GWAS signals lacked a statistical link to a proposed mechanism. Our results demonstrate the value of integrating multiple genomic datasets to improve understanding of GWAS signals, while emphasizing the need for additional experimental approaches to fully characterize complex trait associations.

Journal Article

Redundant and Singular Regulatory Elements Underlie the Rapidly Evolving Pigmentation of Drosophila.

A major hurdle in understanding the molecular changes responsible for metazoan diversity is the characterization of cis-regulatory elements (CREs) for gene regulatory networks (GRNs). CRE changes are suspected to be commonplace in trait evolution, since such changes circumvent the deleterious effects of pleiotropy. A growing list of genes, though, is known to be regulated by redundant CREs. Such redundant CRE architectures complicate the characterization of GRN evolution, as they compound the effort to characterize each locus, and raise the questions of how and whether genes with redundant architectures evolve expression. Here, we used the evolution of sexually dimorphic abdomen pigmentation of Drosophila (D.) melanogaster as a model to study the function and evolution of CREs. Numerous sequences were evaluated that were previously predicted as potential abdomen CREs. Most of these predictions were validated, including two, four, and ten that, respectively, reside in the homothorax, grainy head, and Eip74EF transcription factor loci. The homothorax CREs were found to be partially redundant for this gene's pigmentation function, and pupal-stage Homothorax expression and the CRE activities were conserved among Drosophila species with the derived dimorphic and ancestral monomorphic phenotypes. Similarly, the Eip74EF CREs were conserved in the monomorphic D. willistoni. Thus, this gene's extensive CRE spatiotemporal redundancy has been conserved for over 30 million years, predating the dimorphic trait. Pigmentation evolution has been connected elsewhere to changes in nonredundant CREs. When these traits evolve, GRN changes may be biased towards the genes with singular nonredundant CREs, while the expression of redundantly regulated genes remains conserved.

Animals

Dynamic neuro-immune regulation of psychiatric risk loci in human neurons.

The prenatal environment influences neurodevelopment and subsequent clinical trajectories for psychiatric outcomes in childhood and adolescence. Yet it remains unclear if the impact of maternal and fetal immune activation varies with distinct polygenic risk profiles. Therefore, here we catalogue genotype and environment (GxE) interactions, contrasting allele-specific regulatory activity between inflammatory contexts. We report a cue-specific neuronal massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA) of 220 loci from genome-wide association study (GWAS) linked to ten brain traits/disorders, empirically dissecting the impact of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interferon-alpha (IFN&#x3b1;) on transcriptional activity. Of 1,469 active candidate regulatory risk elements (MPRA-active CRSs) across three conditions, we identify 316 with dynamic variant-specific effects (MPRA-QTLs) in human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived glutamatergic neurons. Broadly, across hundreds of variants, neuronal immune-mediated regulatory activity is driven by differences in transcription factor binding and chromatin accessibility, the gene targets of which show pleiotropic enrichments for brain, metabolic, and immune disorders. Dynamic genetic regulation mediates immune effects, informing our understanding of mechanisms governing pleiotropy and variable penetrance. Understanding neurodevelopmental GxE interactions will inform mental health trajectories and resolve mechanisms mediating prenatal risk.

dynamic expression quantitative trait loci