# Dosage compensation and the rewiring of regulatory netoworks in Drosophila

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · 2020 · $313,308

## Abstract

Evolutionary innovations and adaptations often require rapid and concerted changes in regulation of
gene expression at many loci. Transposable elements (TEs) constitute the most dynamic part of
eukaryotic genomes, and insertions of transposable elements can influence the expression of
surrounding genes by donating new regulatory elements. A longstanding hypothesis, first proposed
by Barbara McClintock, postulates that the dispersal of transposable elements may allow for the same
regulatory motif to be recruited at many genomic locations, thereby drawing multiple genes into the
same regulatory network. Empirical evidence for this model is however scarce, and most putative
examples of TE-mediated rewiring of regulatory networks rely on a statistical association between
remnants of a TE at a subset of genes or genomic regions. We recently provided the first direct
functional evidence of an active TE rewiring a regulatory network by showing that the acquisition of
novel binding sites for the dosage compensation complex at young neo-sex chromosomes in
Drosophila was driven by dispersal of a domesticated TE. Here we propose to quantify the
involvement of TEs vs. acquisition of regulatory sites by other mutations in rewiring regulatory
networks, by systematically studying the evolution of dosage compensation binding sites at over a
dozen independently formed young neo-sex chromosomes in Drosophila. Our detailed
understanding of how dosage compensation in Drosophila works at the molecular level makes it an
ideal model system to study the rewiring of regulatory networks, and recent methodological
development make the investigation of binding site evolution at newly formed X chromosomes in
non-model Drosophila species feasible, making this a timely and exciting proposal.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9908079
- **Project number:** 5R01GM076007-14
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
- **Principal Investigator:** Doris Bachtrog
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $313,308
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2006-04-01 → 2021-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9908079

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9908079, Dosage compensation and the rewiring of regulatory netoworks in Drosophila (5R01GM076007-14). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9908079. Licensed CC0.

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