Transcriptional enhancers integrate positional and temporal information to regulate the complex expression of developmentally controlled genes. Current models suggest that enhancers act as computational devices, receiving multiple inputs from activators and repressors and resolving them into a single positive or a negative signal that is transmitted to the basal transcriptional machinery. We show that a simple, compact enhancer is capable of representing both repressed and activated states at the same time and in the same nucleus. This finding suggests that closely apposed factor binding sites, situated within compact cis-elements, can be independently interpreted by the transcriptional machinery, possibly through successive enhancer-promoter interactions. These results provide clear evidence that the computational functions usually ascribed to the enhancer itself are actually shared with the basal machinery. In contrast to the autonomous computer model of enhancer function, an information-display or `billboard' model of enhancer activity may better describe many developmentally regulated transcriptional enhancers.
History of our journals
As our publisher, The Company of Biologists, turns 100 years old, read about Development’s journey and highlights from some its first issues, and explore the history of each of our sister journals: Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology, Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open.
Call for papers – Lifelong Development: the Maintenance, Regeneration and Plasticity of Tissues
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue – Lifelong Development: the Maintenance, Regeneration and Plasticity of Tissues. This issue will be coordinated by Guest Editors Meritxell Huch (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany) and Mansi Srivastava (Harvard University and Museum of Comparative Zoology, USA), working alongside our team of academic Editors. Submit your articles by 15 May 2025.
A case for broadening our view of mechanism in developmental biology
In this Perspective, B. Duygu Özpolat and colleagues survey researchers on their views on what it takes to infer mechanism in developmental biology. They examine what factors shape our idea of what we mean by ‘mechanism’ and suggest a path forward that embraces a broad outlook on the diversity of studies that advance knowledge in our field.
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