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Close head‐to‐head juxtaposition of genes favors their coordinate regulation in Drosophila melanogaster
Author(s) -
Herr Deron R.,
Harris Greg L.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2004.07.026
Subject(s) - drosophila melanogaster , gene , melanogaster , genetics , head (geology) , biology , genome , drosophila (subgenus) , paleontology
This report identifies a large number of gene‐pairs in Drosophila melanogaster that share a common upstream region. 877 gene‐pairs (∼12% of the genome) are separated by less than 350 bp in a head‐to‐head orientation. This positional relationship is more highly favored in flies than in other organisms. These gene pairs have a higher correlation of expression than similarly spaced genes that have head‐to‐tail or tail‐to‐tail orientations. Thus, the positional arrangement of genes appears to play a significant role in coordinating relative expression patterns and may provide clues for identifying the functions of unknown genes.