Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Gene regulation

Chromatin loops facilitate co-regulation of paralogues

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 25, page 159 (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Paralogous genes, which arise by gene duplication during evolution, can maintain related or partially overlapping functions through continued co-expression and/or cross-regulation even if located distantly in the linear genome. In a recent paper, Pollex et al. assess the role of genome topology in this phenomenon by investigating the regulatory effects of three chromatin loops that connect pairs of paralogous genes with related functions during Drosophila embryogenesis.

To measure the physical proximities of the looped paralogues directly and determine how this organization affects gene regulation, the authors used DNA and RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). DNA FISH showed that all three pairs of paralogues were closer in 3D physical space than controls equidistant along the chromosome. The RNA FISH showed that in some cases the looped pair was compatible with expression of both genes, but was not for other pairs of paralogues. The inconsistent relationship between the proximity of DNA loci and their transcription suggests that the effects of gene–gene loops on gene regulation vary across loci. The data also suggest that some loop functions can change in different developmental contexts.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

Original article

Related article

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nature Reviews Genetics http://www.nature.com/nrg/

    Henry Ertl

Authors
  1. Henry Ertl
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Henry Ertl.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ertl, H. Chromatin loops facilitate co-regulation of paralogues. Nat Rev Genet 25, 159 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-024-00694-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-024-00694-1

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing