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Science 20 March 1998:
Vol. 279. no. 5358, pp. 1896 - 1902
DOI: 10.1126/science.279.5358.1896
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Research Articles

Genomic Cis-Regulatory Logic: Experimental and Computational Analysis of a Sea Urchin Gene

Chiou-Hwa Yuh, Hamid Bolouri, Eric H. Davidson *

The genomic regulatory network that controls gene expression ultimately determines form and function in each species. The operational nature of the regulatory programming specified in cis-regulatory DNA sequence was determined from a detailed functional analysis of a sea urchin control element that directs the expression of a gene in the endoderm during development. Spatial expression and repression, and the changing rate of transcription of this gene, are mediated by a complex and extended cis-regulatory system. The system may be typical of developmental cis-regulatory apparatus. All of its activities are integrated in the proximal element, which contains seven target sites for DNA binding proteins. A quantitative computational model of this regulatory element was constructed that explicitly reveals the logical interrelations hard-wired into the DNA.

C.-H. Yuh and E. H. Davidson are in the Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. H. Bolouri is in the Engineering Research and Development Centre, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: davidson{at}mirsky.caltech.edu

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