No abstract

SummaryDespite the large evolutionary distances, metazoan species show remarkable commonalities, which has helped establish fly and worm as model organisms for human biology1,2. Although studies of individual elements and factors have explored similarities in gene regulation, a large-scale comparative analysis of basic principles of transcriptional regulatory features is lacking. We mapped the genome-wide binding locations of 165 human, 93 worm, and 52 fly transcription-regulatory factors (RFs) generating a total of 1,019 data sets from diverse cell-types, developmental stages, or conditions in the three species, of which 498 (48.9%) are presented here for the first time. We find that structural properties of regulatory networks are remarkably conserved and that orthologous RF families recognize similar binding motifs in vivo and show some similar co-associations. Our results suggest that gene-regulatory properties previously observed for individual factors are general principles of metazoan regulation that are remarkably well-preserved despite extensive functional divergence of individual network connections. The comparative maps of regulatory circuitry provided here will drive an improved understanding in the regulatory underpinnings of model organism biology and how these relate to human biology, development, and disease.

At specific choice points in the periphery, subsets of motor axons defasciculate from other axons in the motor nerves and steer into their muscle target regions. Using a large-scale genetic screen in Drosophila, we identified the sidestep (side) gene as essential for motor axons to leave the motor nerves and enter their muscle targets. side encodes a target-derived transmembrane protein (Side) that is a novel member of the immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF). Side is expressed on embryonic muscles during the period when motor axons leave their nerves and extend onto these muscles. In side mutant embryos, motor axons fail to extend onto muscles and instead continue to extend along their motor nerves. Ectopic expression of Side results in extensive and prolonged motor axon contact with inappropriate tissues expressing Side.