2020
DOI: 10.7554/elife.63368
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Innovation of heterochromatin functions drives rapid evolution of essential ZAD-ZNF genes in Drosophila

Abstract: Contrary to dogma, evolutionarily young and dynamic genes can encode essential functions. We find that evolutionarily dynamic ZAD-ZNF genes, which encode the most abundant class of insect transcription factors, are more likely to encode essential functions in Drosophila melanogaster than ancient, conserved ZAD-ZNF genes. We focus on the Nicknack ZAD-ZNF gene, which is evolutionarily young, poorly retained in Drosophila species, and evolves under strong positive selection. Yet we find that it is necessary for l… Show more

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Cited by 38 publications
(62 citation statements)
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“…This analysis also identified ZAD-ZNF genes with no prior reported function in germ cells. For example, we identified a role for the genes encoding the Odj and CG17802 proteins that localize to heterochromatin in somatic cells ( Swenson et al 2016 ; Kasinathan et al 2020 ). Heterochromatin establishment and maintenance is essential for many cellular processes, including chromosome segregation and genome stability ( Janssen et al 2018 ).…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This analysis also identified ZAD-ZNF genes with no prior reported function in germ cells. For example, we identified a role for the genes encoding the Odj and CG17802 proteins that localize to heterochromatin in somatic cells ( Swenson et al 2016 ; Kasinathan et al 2020 ). Heterochromatin establishment and maintenance is essential for many cellular processes, including chromosome segregation and genome stability ( Janssen et al 2018 ).…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Finally, in a comprehensive functional and evolutionary analysis of the ZAD-ZNF gene family in Drosophila [17], 86 paralogous copies were identified with phenotypic effects detected by knockdown and knockout in D. melanogaster. It was found that the proportion (17/58 = 29.3%) of lethal copies in old duplicates (>40 Mya) and the proportion (11/28 = 39.3%) of lethal copies in Drosophila-specific duplicates (<40 Mya) are statistically similar.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…New genes in evolution have widely attracted discussion [1][2][3][4][5][6], supported by increasing studies with fulsome evidence in various organisms [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. The detected large number of new genes with unexpected rate of new gene evolution [14][15][16] and the revealed important functions of new genes [2,[17][18][19][20] challenged a widely held dogma that the genetic basis in control of development is conserved in a long time scale of evolution [21][22][23][24].…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
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“…KRAB-zinc-fingers are confined to mammals, but an analogous protein family exists in flies: ZAD-zinc-fingers (ZAD-ZNF's). ZAD-ZNF's are a poorly characterized gene family that has dramatically expanded within insect lineages (Chung et al 2007;Kasinathan et al 2020).…”
Section: Potential Mechanisms For Targeted Nucleation In Tesmentioning
confidence: 99%