{"id":24976,"date":"2012-02-02T12:13:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-02T11:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?p=24976"},"modified":"2024-11-14T16:29:16","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T15:29:16","slug":"collective-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/collective-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Collective action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If you wanted to draw your family tree, you could start by searching for people who share your surname. Cells, of course, don\u2019t have surnames, but scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have found that genetic switches called enhancers, and the molecules that activate those switches \u2013 transcription factors \u2013 can be used in a similar way, as clues to a cell\u2019s developmental history. The study, published today in&nbsp;<em>Cell<\/em>, also unveils a new model for how enhancers function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking at fruit fly embryos, Guillaume Junion and Mikhail Spivakov, collaborating scientists in the groups of&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/embl.org\/groups\/furlong\/\">Eileen Furlong<\/a>&nbsp;at EMBL and Ewan Birney at EMBL\u2019s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), found that, in heart muscle cells, enhancers which are meant to be active aren\u2019t the only ones that have groups of transcription factors attached. Surprisingly, enhancers that should be active only in the neighbouring gut muscle were also occupied by transcription factors in heart cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAlthough it may seem counter-intuitive to leave unnecessary genetic switches available for activation and then have to actively suppress them, the findings make sense in developmental terms,\u201d says Furlong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both heart and gut muscle cells develop from the same pool of precursor cells. Enhancers for both groups seem to be made available to transcription factors in the precursor cells, before they \u2018grow up\u2019 to be either heart or muscle cells. If this is the case, scientists could work out the relationships between cells by looking at what occupied enhancers they share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Intriguingly, heart muscle cells don\u2019t actually have the transcription factors that bind to gut enhancers in gut muscle cells. Instead, the gut enhancers in heart cells were occupied by transcription factors produced only by the heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furlong and colleagues found that transcription factors are able to attach themselves to enhancers in groups, with some transcription factors binding directly to the enhancer\u2019s DNA and others binding to those enhancer-bound transcription factors. This means that the genetic sequence of these enhancers can vary greatly, yet they are occupied as a united group \u2013 a strategy that differs from the two ways in which enhancers were already known to function. This flexibility in the enhancer\u2019s genetic sequence means that it can mutate without disastrous effects, giving it some evolutionary flexibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The EMBL scientists are now investigating how far that flexibility extends. They are looking at variation between species, extending their studies to another species of fruit fly,&nbsp;<em>Drosophila virilis<\/em>, which is, genetically speaking, as different from the commonly-used&nbsp;<em>Drosophila melanogaster<\/em>&nbsp;as humans are from chickens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"vf-box vf-box--inlay\">\n\n  <h3 class=\"vf-box__heading\">Source article<\/h3>\n  <p class=\"vf-box__text\"><a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.cell.2012.01.030\">Junion, G., Spivakov, M., Girardot, C., Braun, M., Gustafson, E.H., Birney, E. &amp; Furlong, E.E.M. A transcription factor collective defines cardiac cell fate and reflects the developmental history of this cell lineage.\u00a0<em>Cell<\/em>, 3 February 2012.\u00a0<\/a><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.cell.2012.01.030\">DOI:10.1016\/j.cell.2012.01.030.<\/a><br \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you wanted to draw your family tree, you could start by searching for people who share your surname. Cells, of course, don\u2019t have surnames, but scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have found that genetic switches called enhancers, and the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":24978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17591],"tags":[478,665,563,821,833,484],"embl_taxonomy":[5140],"class_list":["post-24976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-science-technology","tag-drosophila","tag-embryo","tag-embryonic-development","tag-fly","tag-fruit-fly","tag-furlong","embl_taxonomy-developmental-biology"],"acf":{"show_featured_image":false,"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"article_intro":"<p>Occupied genetic switches hold clues to cells\u2019 history<\/p>\n","article_sources":false,"related_links":false,"in_this_article":false,"color":"#007B53","youtube_url":"","mp4_url":"","video_caption":"","press_contact":"EMBL Generic","field_target_display":"embl","source_article":false},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[{"uuid":"a:3:{i:0;s:36:\"302cfdf7-365b-462a-be65-82c7b783ebf7\";i:1;s:36:\"7ca3ce91-dc32-47ea-8d4b-7a53c3a3a9fd\";i:2;s:36:\"6a2f2be6-8bb7-4425-b318-5ed992f715cc\";}","parents":[],"name":["Developmental Biology"],"slug":"developmental-biology","description":"What &gt; Research Units &gt; Developmental Biology"}],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Collective action | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/collective-action\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Collective action | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you wanted to draw your family tree, you could start by searching for people who share your surname. Cells, of course, don\u2019t have surnames, but scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have found that genetic switches called enhancers, and the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/collective-action\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-02T11:13:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-14T15:29:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/fruit-fly_embryo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"386\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest author(s)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest author(s)\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/collective-action\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/collective-action\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Guest author(s)\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b4d9366b2ebe691c4015c64c3619205b\"},\"headline\":\"Collective action\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-02T11:13:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-14T15:29:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/collective-action\/\"},\"wordCount\":433,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/collective-action\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/fruit-fly_embryo.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"drosophila\",\"embryo\",\"embryonic development\",\"fly\",\"fruit fly\",\"furlong\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science\",\"Science &amp; Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/collective-action\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/collective-action\/\",\"name\":\"Collective action | EMBL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/collective-action\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/collective-action\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/fruit-fly_embryo.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-02T11:13:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-14T15:29:16+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/collective-action\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/collective-action\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/fruit-fly_embryo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/fruit-fly_embryo.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":386,\"caption\":\"Fruit fly embryo showing the cells that will become gut (green\/yellow) and heart (red) muscle. 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