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Science 29 May 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5931, pp. 1213 - 1216
DOI: 10.1126/science.1170097
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Reports

Unstable Tandem Repeats in Promoters Confer Transcriptional Evolvability

Marcelo D. Vinces,1,2,3,* Matthieu Legendre,1,4,* Marina Caldara,1 Masaki Hagihara,5 Kevin J. Verstrepen1,2,3,{dagger}

Relative to most regions of the genome, tandemly repeated DNA sequences display a greater propensity to mutate. A search for tandem repeats in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome revealed that the nucleosome-free region directly upstream of genes (the promoter region) is enriched in repeats. As many as 25% of all gene promoters contain tandem repeat sequences. Genes driven by these repeat-containing promoters show significantly higher rates of transcriptional divergence. Variations in repeat length result in changes in expression and local nucleosome positioning. Tandem repeats are variable elements in promoters that may facilitate evolutionary tuning of gene expression by affecting local chromatin structure.

1 FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
2 Laboratory for Systems Biology, Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U. Leuven), B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
3 Genetics and Genomics Group, Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics (CMPG), K.U. Leuven, Gaston Geenslaan 1, B-3001 Leuven (Heverlee), Belgium.
4 Structural and Genomic Information Laboratory, CNRS-UPR 2589, IFR-88, Université de la Méditerranée Parc Scientifique de Luminy, Avenue de Luminy, FR-13288 Marseille, France.
5 The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, 8-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, 567-0047, Japan.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Kevin.Verstrepen{at}biw.vib-kuleuven.be

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